The national head of crime intelligence of the South African Police Service (SAPS) Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo told the Madlanga Commission that suspended deputy national commissioner of police (crime detection) Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya and SAPS national head of organised crime Maj-Gen Richard Shibiri are working with criminal cartels.
Four officers identified
Khumalo said Sibiya, Shibiri, SAPS Acting Sedibeng District Commissioner Brig Mbangwa Nkhwashu and Captain Makgotloe, a SAPS ballistics expert, are working with criminal cartels.
Khumalo revealed this information on Wednesday at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System taking place in Pretoria.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Khumalo told Advocate Adila Hassim SC, the commission’s evidence leader, that a meeting took place in April this year between himself, National Commissioner of Police Gen Fannie Masemola and police minister Senzo Mchunu. Mchunu is currently on special leave.
Khumalo said the meeting would look into what the SAPS Gauteng Counter Intelligence Operation team had found.
“The meeting focused in the Big Five drug cartel and their roles. We identified five senior police officers who are working with the cartel. General Sibiya, General Shibiri, Brigadier Nkhwashu and Captain Makgotloe are working with the cartel,” said Khumalo.
He said the name of the fifth senior police officer working with the cartel cannot be named due to ongoing police investigations.
Khumalo said Mchunu told him and Masemola that they should continue with the investigations into the implicated senior police officers.
The commission has heard testimony of how Sibiya, Shibiri, Nkhwashu and Makgotloe are allegedly working with criminal cartels.
Cordial visits to Katiso Molefe
Khumalo told the commission that Sibiya’s subordinate, Sgt FE Nkosi, went to the house of alleged drug cartel member Katiso “KT” Molefe driving in a registered SAPS vehicle allocated to Sibiya’s head office. Nkosi came out of Molefe’s house carrying a white paper bag after his visit to the house.
Witnesses A and B told the commission that Shibiri called them to a meeting. He told them that the people they have arrested for the April 2024 murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart are connected to dangerous people.
Shibiri told them there were three envelopes on offer. These were ready for the magistrate, prosecutor and investigating officers in the Swart murder case. They did not say whether the envelopes were about money or something else.
Witnesses A and B said on December 9 2024, Nkhwashu went to visit Molefe in prison. He went there three days after Molefe’s arrest for Swart’s murder.
They said Nkhwashu went there to give Molefe food and clothing. He visited Molefe in prison after visiting hours, and he drove into the prison in a vehicle without registration numbers.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said in January 2025, Makgotloe opened a kidnapping case with the police. This was after allegations arose during an investigation into inconsistencies in a ballistic report he prepared.
Kidnapping allegations
“Captain Makgotloe escorted the investigative team to his office to provide an original report previously sent via email. Upon the team’s discovery of discrepancies in multiple reports and their subsequent request to seize Captain Makgotloe’s computer, he alleged that he had been kidnapped,” said Mkhwanazi.
The commission is taking place at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria. It is chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
The commissions resumes on Thursday at 10am with a new witness to take the stand.
