'I made enemies in Crime Intelligence’: Sibiya links his dismissal to Mdluli probe
Deputy National Commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya told Parliament on Monday that he was falsely charged and dismissed after probing powerful figures in SAPS, but was later cleared and reinstated by the courts.
Sibiya appeared before Parliament’s ad hoc committee on Monday, which is probing claims of political interference and factionalism in the police, following explosive allegations made in July by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Testifying under oath, Sibiya said his career had been derailed after he oversaw the investigation into former Crime Intelligence boss General Richard Mdluli.
“It is at that point in time when I was approached to conduct an investigation on the former Divisional Commissioner of Crime and Intelligence, General Richard Mdluli. I put the team together that was running the investigation, leading to the arrest of Richard Mdluli.
“It is then that I actually made a lot of enemies within the Crime and Intelligence sector,” Sibiya told MPs.
He also connected this investigation to the retaliation he faced.
“Many cases were opened against me, even when they brought in General Berning Ntlemeza, who was to take over from General Mdluli; he immediately suspended me, immediately charged me for fraud and corruption. I got charged for fraudulent kilometres and for illegal rendition of the Zimbabweans.”
The fallout, he said, led to his suspension and charges of fraud, corruption, and involvement in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals.
Charges he maintains were baseless and politically motivated.
“When you look at the people who actually were involved in the arrest of those Zimbabweans, all of them were from Crime Intelligence. They were even awarded letters of commendation. But I’m the one who was charged,” Sibiya told MPs.
He added that during the court process, the magistrate questioned why he was even in the dock.
“The prosecutor said on record that he knew there was no case, but he was instructed to put the matter under control,” Sibiya said.
Sibiya began his SAPS career on 2 January 1989 as a constable stationed in Nelspruit.
Over the years, he rose steadily through the ranks, eventually becoming Deputy National Commissioner responsible for crime detection.
He obtained a National Diploma in Police Administration in 1996, a BTech in Policing from UNISA in 2008, and is currently registered for a master’s degree in Criminal Justice.
In 2001, he joined the elite Directorate of Special Operations (the Scorpions) as a senior special investigator. Based at the National Prosecuting Authority, he was later deployed to the Eastern Cape to help root out systemic corruption in the province.
By 2004, he had helped establish the Scorpions’ regional offices in the Free State and Northern Cape, and was appointed Chief Special Investigator until the unit’s disbandment in 2009.
After the Scorpions were shut down, Sibiya moved to commercial crime in SAPS, but requested a return to organised crime investigations. He was deployed to the Hawks’ head office, where, lacking resources and formal structure, he created a specialised unit, the Technical Operations Management Section, to combat serious and violent crimes.
This unit focused on cash-in-transit heists, ATM bombings, and organised murders, and its successes drew national attention. Sibiya said Parliament even monitored their progress in identifying and arresting high-level cash-in-transit kingpins.
“The same team I formed was later turned into a fully-fledged unit within the Hawks,” he said.
He was then promoted to Deputy Provincial Commissioner for Gauteng, heading up the DPCI in the province. He worked alongside then-provincial commissioner General Mzwandile Petros, whose team helped move Gauteng from ninth to first in the national crime performance rankings.
It was during this period, Sibiya said, that he led the team investigating Mdluli, a decision that would ultimately cost him his job.
“I actually made a lot of enemies in Crime Intelligence,” he told the committee.
Sibiya was suspended and later dismissed based on the now-discredited charges. He launched a legal challenge and won.
The Labour Court ruled that he had been “unfairly, substantially and unprocedurally dismissed,” and ordered that he be reinstated with effect from 1 July 2022.
During his time away from SAPS, Sibiya found work at the City of Johannesburg. His appointment was controversial in some quarters, but he defended the process.
“I applied like any other candidate. I was employed officially, in daylight, approved by the council, and participated like any normal employee,” he said.
He added that the Public Protector investigated complaints about his appointment and found no wrongdoing.
Once reinstated at SAPS, Sibiya said he did not insist on returning to his former post, but accepted deployment as the component head of organised crime. A year later, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed as Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection by the National Commissioner .
Now 57, Sibiya told MPs he had spent his entire adult life in law enforcement and simply wanted to return to the work.
“I joined the police when I was 20 years old. I grew up in the police. My job is that of the police,” he said.
He warned, however, that the events currently unfolding in SAPS echoed the very issues that derailed his own career, namely political interference, factionalism, and internal sabotage.
“This is a similar situation I’m facing now,” he said.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
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