Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya. (Photo: Frennie Shivambu / Gallo Images) 
KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi recently accused his colleague, Lt Gen Shadrack Sibiya, of removing case dockets relating to political killings to effectively undermine investigations and protect suspects.
Sibiya publicly denied this.
He previously told Newzroom Afrika that Mkhwanazi was bringing the South African Police Service (SAPS) into disrepute and that Mkhwanazi “doesn’t know what he’s talking about”.
But now, nine days after Mkhwanazi made the accusations, Sibiya has been asked to take a leave of absence. Sibiya holds a senior posting in the SAPS – he is the Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection.
Special leave and a commission
On Tuesday, 15 July 2025, the national SAPS told Daily Maverick that Sibiya had indeed been told to take leave and that National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola had confirmed this.
Masemola, speaking to journalists in KwaZulu-Natal earlier on Tuesday, said Sibiya had been “served with documents… he has to take leave” while departmental processes were under way.
He clarified that the “processes” involved investigations into “what has been alleged”. Masemola said Sibiya was the only officer to be placed on leave.
Just two days before this development, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Police Minister Senzo Mchunu had also been placed on leave and that a commission of inquiry was being set up to focus on Mkhwanazi’s wide-ranging and astounding accusations.
Mkhwanazi had held a press briefing on 6 July where he alleged that Mchunu, with several other figures, including Sibiya, had undermined investigations into political killings and organised crime.
Aside from that, Mkhwanazi had also alleged that a drug cartel based in Gauteng was controlling a high-level criminal syndicate that extends into the SAPS, the police ministry, Parliament, official prison structures, the judiciary and other law enforcement authorities.
These accusations, which are yet to be fully investigated or weighed up in a courtroom, are all now set to be the focus of the impending commission of inquiry.
Political killings case dockets
Mkhwanazi, during his press conference earlier this month, had alleged that on 31 December 2024, Mchunu sent out a directive to freeze the filling of vacancies in the Crime Intelligence unit and to disband the Political Killings Task Team.
The team was set up six years earlier, in 2018.
A presentation during Mkhwanazi’s press conference detailed more of his accusations.
Read more: SAPS commissioner accuses police minister of derailing probe into political killings
“On the 26th March 2025, a total of 121 case dockets under investigation were taken away from the Task Team as directed by the Deputy National Commissioner: Crime Detection, Lt General Sibiya, acting on the instruction of the Minister of Police to disband the Task Team,” the presentation alleged.
“This was done without the authority of the National [or] the Provincial Commissioner.”
A section of the presentation said in bold font that the 121 case dockets had been sitting at the police’s head office “ever since, without any investigation work done on them”.
It alleged that Sibiya had also, in January, February and April this year, “issued written instructions withdrawing all the case dockets from the Task Team to his office”.
The ‘Cat’ and the ‘Comrade’
Mkhwanazi’s allegations relating to Sibiya and Mchunu extended further. This is where attempted murder plot accused Vusi “Cat” Matlala and businessman Brown Mogotsi fit in.
Mkhwanazi basically alleged Mchunu was in cahoots with both, and that Sibiya also fitted into this arena.
The presentation from Mkhwanazi’s press conference earlier this month said that on 1 January this year, which would have been a day after Mchunu allegedly ordered the Political Killings Task Team to be disbanded, Matlala had sent Mogotsi messages.
One allegedly said: “‘I have arranged a meeting for Sibiya and the Minister, they must have a solution.”
Another message allegedly stated: “The task team that came to your house and harassed you have been dissolved; they got the letter on Monday. As we speak, they are bringing all dockets to Sibiya.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
⁰9 July 2025STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO ALLEGATIONS REGARDING THE MINISTER’S ALLEGED ASSOCIATION WITH MR MATLALA AND MR MOGOTSI
In response to the recent allegations made by Provincial Commissioner Mkhwanazi, and while respecting the President's call for…
— Senzo Mchunu (@Senzo_Mchunu_) July 9, 2025
For his part, Mchunu, before being placed on leave, had denied ever meeting or receiving anything from Matlala, and described Mogotsi as “just a comrade and not an associate”.
Mogotsi, via the SABC, denied the allegations that Mkhwanazi had made.
#EXCLUSIVE North West-based businessman Brown Mogotsi has refuted KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's recent allegations against him and Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. Mogotsi is at the centre of Mkhwanazi's allegation that senior political figures and top… pic.twitter.com/UDDzNmp64S
— SABC News (@SABCNews) July 11, 2025
Mogotsi also told the SABC that his security had become an issue – he was followed “here and there” and his “phone had some problems”.
This all means that Sibiya, Mchunu and Mogotsi have basically denied what Mkhwanazi alleged during his press conference this month. It is not clear what Matlala’s stance on this is, because he is in custody facing criminal charges.
Crime Intelligence crisis
Mkhwanazi made several other accusations during his press conference. He inferred that the Crime Intelligence unit may have been intentionally imploded by individuals keen to see it collapse.
He was referring to the June arrests of the unit’s head at the time, Dumisani Khumalo, and six of his colleagues over allegations of an irregular appointment in Crime Intelligence. They denied the accusations.
Daily Maverick has previously reported that about four months before Khumalo and his colleagues were arrested, the SAPS had warned Parliament that he was being targeted because he was cleaning up the unit, which has a history involving corruption accusations.
This alleged targeting was in the form of accusations, spread via the media and social media, that Khumalo was appointing people aligned with him. And that is roughly what he was arrested for at the end of June.
Last week, it was announced that Major-General Solomon Makgato would fill Khumalo’s position as national Crime Intelligence boss in an acting capacity.
It also emerged that Khumalo and his six colleagues, who now face the irregular appointment accusations, had been transferred out of the Crime Intelligence unit.
Mkhwanazi ‘taken seriously’
So far in this political-policing scandal, which is muddied by smear campaign-style claims and counterclaims, has exposed major divisions in South Africa’s law enforcement arena.
And it appears, at face value, that the saga so far is developing in Mkhwanazi’s favour.
Ramaphosa, in placing Mchunu on leave and ordering a commission of inquiry into Mkhwanazi’s allegations, has not simply brushed off the accusations but is taking them seriously.
Read more: ‘No smear campaigning’ — Masemola warns Crime Intelligence management while filling unit vacancies
As for the SAPS, National Commissioner Masemola has not suspended Mkhwanazi. He has also not suspended Khumalo and his six accused colleagues.
But Masemola has now asked Sibiya to take a leave of absence, suggesting that he is also taking Mkhwanazi’s allegations seriously, even though these are yet to be fully tested. DM