Cele, Mashaba and Phalatse could have saved South Africa from Shadrack Sibiya fiasco, says official
KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has questioned the appointment of Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya as deputy national commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), warning that the decision ignored serious red flags raised years earlier.
Joburg official Melusi Mlandu, executive director in the office of the city manager, insists South Africa “would have been saved” if Police Minister Bheki Cele and former Joburg mayors Herman Mashaba and Mpho Phalatse had acted on warnings about Sibiya’s alleged misconduct.
Mlandu revealed that in June 2022, he wrote directly to Cele, cautioning against Sibiya’s appointment, but never received a response. “I never heard anything from the minister,” he said.
“He ignored it … they were about to appoint somebody who was operating fraudulently in the City of Johannesburg for five years,” said Mlandu.
The warning followed concerns raised by the City about irregular expenditure and questionable procurement during Sibiya’s tenure as head of Johannesburg’s Group Forensic Investigative Services (GFIS). GFIS had acquired specialised surveillance and investigative equipment worth millions of rand, some allegedly procured without following supply chain processes, and other purchases were never properly accounted for.
Despite those red flags, Sibiya was elevated to deputy national commissioner for crime detection.
Speaking to eNCA in an exclusive interview, Mlandu detailed how his efforts to warn different politicians, to block the appointment of Sibiya, were repeatedly ignored.
“He did not heed my advice. The country could have been saved by General Bheki Cele just paying attention to my writing, that is the first person. The country could have been saved if I had informed Herman Mashaba that I was being subjected to undercover operations in the Eastern Cape. The country could have been saved when I approached Mpho Phalatse and Councillor (Vasco) Da Gama, placing these things before them,” he said.
According to Mlandu, Sibiya’s appointment as head of GFIS was never properly authorised by council. “I heard that Shadrack was gonna be appointed at SAPS, in actual fact, he was gonna be reinstated. At the time when Shadrack was gonna be reinstated, I had written to Da Gama the former Speaker, saying to him there was no letter which appoints Shadrack Sibiya as the head of GFIS. There is a letter which appoints Shadrack Sibiya as a unit head in 2019.
“As to how Shadrack Sibiya moved to be from a unit head to group head is as mysterious as it was back then. That is why we are investigating that as a city. It doesn’t exist. He was earning R1,2 million (annually) and suddenly Shadrack Sibiya earned R1,8 million. So the R3,5 million is the difference that Sibiya earned which he was not entitled to earn as he was never appointed by the City of Johannesburg to be head of GFIS.”
Mlandu added that he had repeatedly presented evidence to city leadership, but it was disregarded. “I brought that to the attention of Mpho Phalatse and I was called corrupt, I think she even issued a statement that there were officials who are so corrupt. We produced a report to say here is the evidence, Mpho Phalatse and councillor Da Gama sat on that report. That report was dated 8 April 2022. Then I filed a proper report on 6 June to councillor Da Gama, and he ignored it.”
Mlandu insists that anyone investigated under Sibiya’s watch at GFIS may have been investigated unlawfully. “As we speak, anyone who was once investigated by Shadrack Sibiya, was investigated unlawfully because you need first proper delegations from the council to investigate anybody, and they (the delegations) must be approved. It’s the law,” he said.
He maintains that the crisis now engulfing SAPS could have been avoided. “The country would have been saved from this mess where we have the second senior police official in our country being linked to criminal syndicates,” said Mlandu.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
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