Lieutenant-General Sibiya’s court application exposes serious criminal charges against police leaders

Deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya has revealed that his boss, national commissioner General Fannie Masemola, KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili are being investigated for several serious criminal charges.

Sibiya makes the revelations in his urgent application to return to work after being forced to stay at home, pending an investigation and stop his bosses from instituting a process parallel to the judicial commission of inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system established by President Cyril Ramaphosa and chaired by retiring Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.

Mosikili is the deputy national commissioner responsible for policing while Sibiya oversees crime detection.

Sibiya has hauled the SA Police Service (SAPS), Masemola, acting police minister Gwede Mantashe and Ramaphosa to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.

In papers filed on Friday, Sibiya said Masemola, Mkhwanazi and Mosikili are under investigation by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) and the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) for bribery, dishonesty, illegal rendition, torture and obstructing the ends of justice. He said Masemola’s decision-making was inconsistent and undermined the looming Justice Madlanga-led commission.

The allegations are contained in a letter sent to Masemola by Sibiya’s lawyers, Ian Levitt Attorneys, on July 17 and which is attached to his application.

According to Sibiya, the group of top police crime intelligence officers including its boss Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and chief financial officer Major-General Philani Lushaba arrested and charged on serious allegations of fraud and corruption were not directed to stay at home, suspended or are being investigated.

Sibiya has asked the court for an order declaring that Masemola’s decision to direct him to “stay at home, pending an investigation” unlawful, void, and of no force or effect, and/or be reviewed and set aside and the status quo ex ante (before the event) be restored.

In addition, Sibiya wants Masemola to be interdicted from instituting parallel proceedings and action against the applicant, which includes, inter alia, suspending, investigating, and/or disciplining him.

He is asking that the interdict be granted pending the conclusion of the commission announced by Ramaphosa early this month to probe the allegations made by Mkhwanazi and other matters part of its terms of reference and mandate.

Alternatively, Sibiya is seeking an order stating that his stay at home is suspended from being taken or implemented pending the outcome of the commission. He complained that the national commissioner’s conduct towards him is based on unsubstantiated allegations and patently inconsistent, irrational, unlawful and unfair.

“The national commissioner’s unjustified favour or inclination towards the KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner’s allegations against me bring into question whether the national commissioner is, or can be, an independent and neutral arbiter in any matter involving me,” Sibiya stated.

He said that despite Mkhwanazi’s allegations against him and the resultant threats and danger they have exposed him to, Masemola has refused to grant him funding for legal representation and/or security.

Sibiya also indicated that his life is in danger and has received threats.

A risk assessment by acting national head of crime intelligence Major-General Solomon Makgato on July 22 has concluded that the threats against his life are high and recommended to Masemola that he be afforded static and transit protection for a period of three months.

Sibiya said Masemola has not resolved the safety concerns after being stripped of a driver and protector, which he said left him destitute to protect himself and his family on his own at a volatile time.

“It is no embellishment to say, that assumes I am not killed in the interim, without, for example, a protector consequent upon my employment,” he told the court.

Sibiya has sent a letter of demand to Mkhwanazi to retract what he described as defamatory statements against him and that he reserves his rights to pursue all available remedies against him which led to his suspension and insists the allegations are false.

National and KwaZulu-Natal police spokespersons, Brigadier Athlenda Mathe and Colonel Robert Netshiunda, respectively, did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za