Suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, has questioned the very existence of the so-called “Big Five” drug cartel.
Speaking before the Parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating corruption within state security structures, Sibiya firmly denied knowing anything about the Big Five or having any connection to it.
Clueless about serious probe
“The Big Five that is being spoken about is not there, and if it is indeed true that it is there, it does exist, why are they not being arrested for drugs or whatever reasons there may be?” Sibiya asked.
“But personally, I am not involved in the Big Five, I don’t know the Big Five,” Sibiya added.
He also raised concerns about the divisions within the South African Police Service (SAPS). Sibiya questioned whether the issue at hand was truly about organised crime or rather internal rivalries.
“I am tempted to say yes but I think it’s better left to this committee to look at what is happening after our presentation and decide on that,” Sibiya said.
The Big Five is allegedly a cartel controlled by five tenderpreneurs and is linked to drugs, cross-border vehicle hijacking, kidnappings, tender fraud, and contract killings, among other things.
Cross-border criminal enterprise
This information was revealed by police divisional commissioner for crime intelligence Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption, headed by retired justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
Attempted murder-accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and murder-accused Katiso “KT” Molefe are the only named persons relating to the cartel.
Matlala is currently in custody for attempted murder on actress and ex-girlfriend Tebogo Thobejane, while Molefe is out on R400 000 bail for allegedly orchestrating the murder of popular musician DJ Sumbody and his two bodyguards and R100 000 bail for the murder of engineer Armand Swart in Vereeniging.
Sibiya had also revealed to the committee that he knew Matlala and his associate Brown Mogotsi through separate phone calls he received from them. He said Matlala called him to complain about a tender, while Matlala told him about an investigation against him by crime intelligence.
On Matlala, he further said, “We are not friends, or we were not friends, but at the same time, I was getting to know him. My whole life I have met Matlala five times [or] less; he is not someone that I was really close to. It was just the beginning of knowing each other more, so my interaction with him is very limited.”
