SA’s policing scandal explodes – ‘Under siege’ Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief staffer raided

A parliamentary hearing into accusations that criminals have infiltrated South Africa’s police service has at times dragged on slowly this week as testimony is methodically examined. 

But outside of these proceedings on Thursday, 9 October 2025, there was interlinked back-to-back action.

Some of it points to the depths of corruption in South Africa, as well as just how fragmented policing is in the country.

Mounting accusations and counteraccusations between key officers also emphasise that there are outright factions in the police service.

Raids and ‘rifles’

Suspended Deputy National Commissioner of Crime Detection Shadrack Sibiya’s home was raided in Gauteng on Thursday, and electronic items were seized in an operation that saw him saying he was “under siege”.

And Cedrick Nkabinde, the sidelined Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s chief of staff, told journalists that officers with balaclavas and high-calibre rifles also searched his flat the previous evening.

Both Sibiya and Nkabinde have been named several times at Parliament’s ad hoc committee hearing that started proceedings this week to look into allegations that a drug cartel has infiltrated law enforcement and politics.

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola testified as the ad hoc committee’s second witness on Thursday.

As he was wrapping up his testimony in the early evening, he confirmed that he knew about the raids on Sibiya and Nkabinde, saying: “The investigating team went to get gadgets. I must still be briefed as I get out of here.”

Masemola emphasised that gadgets and not “people” had been the focus of the search-and-seizure operations.

In other words, the intention was not to arrest anyone.

National Police Commissioner Fanie Masemola speaks to journalists after an appearance at the ad hoc inquiry into claims made by KZN police boss Lt Gen Mkhwanazi.

He speaks about the raids at the deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya’s home. @dailymaverick pic.twitter.com/zzCKjjZ3WA

— Suné Payne 🇿🇦 (@SunePayne) October 9, 2025

Journalists doorstopped Masemola after the proceedings in Parliament wrapped up.

He appeared tired but maintained his composure as he again explained that he needed to be fully briefed on what had happened in terms of the raids.

Both Sibiya and Nkabinde are set to be witnesses at the parliamentary hearing, with Sibiya expected to take the stand on Monday.

This hearing is running parallel to another: the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that is investigating the same allegations and that is on a break until next week.

Converging commissions and scandals

Accusations that sparked both the hearings were first made about three months ago when KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhanhla Mkhwanazi, held a press conference.

During previous proceedings in both sets of proceedings, Nkabinde was portrayed as leaking sensitive police information.

He was also alleged to have crafted a letter, ordering the disbandment of KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team, which bore Mchunu’s signature.

Read more: Police war of words continues as Sibiya accuses Masemola of ‘tainted’ process against him

It was subsequently alleged that the controversial plan to disband the task team was made to in effect protect criminal suspects.

Mchunu, who denied wrongdoing, was placed on special leave after allegations against him first surfaced.

As for Sibiya, he was also accused of playing a role in trying to disband the Political Killings Task Team.

He had countered that he did nothing wrong, but he was made to take leave, after which he was suspended.

‘No crisis, just challenges’

In terms of the parliamentary hearing, Masemola started testifying on Thursday after Mkhwanazi spent two days on the witness stand.

Both Sibiya and Nkabinde’s names surfaced during the proceedings.

Masemola spoke about KwaZulu-Natal’s Political Killings Task Team and referenced the duo.

He testified that Sibiya had not been involved in the team’s operations and that Nkabinde had appeared to be supportive of the plan to disband it.

Read more: Confusion over whether cops want to arrest Sibiya, this while Parliament hears ‘no policing crisis’

Before that part of his testimony, Masemola had reiterated that while South Africa’s police service was experiencing challenges, it was not in crisis.

He explained that police resources were “not in abundance” and, at the same time, the population was growing.

“We’re trying our best with what we have,” said Masemola.

While he insisted on Thursday that there was no policing crisis, what was happening outside of Parliament underscored problems cutting deeply into South Africa’s law enforcement arena.

‘Under siege’ Sibiya

Information started doing the rounds, while Masemola was testifying, that police officers had arrived at Sibiya’s Gauteng home and that he faced arrest.

His lawyer Ian Levitt had confirmed this was the case to Daily Maverick.

However, national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe had said she did not know of any police officers being at Sibiya’s home, only journalists.

It later became clear that Sibiya’s home had been raided in a high-level operation.

Levitt told reporters gathered outside the home that six cars “full of heavily armed masked gunmen with fully automatic rifles” had been involved in the search-and-seizure operation. This, he said, while there were children and elderly women in Sibiya’s home.

[WATCH] Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya addresses the media after the police visited his home. He says only gadgets belonging to him and everyone who was in his house were taken.#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/KhjqIdog0x

— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) October 9, 2025

Sibiya told the journalists he was expecting his arrest at “any time”.

“I’ve been under surveillance. Remember, we are under siege here. It’s helicopters, it’s surveillance left, right and centre … This is abuse of power,” said Sibiya.

He said that gadgets, including three or four cellphones, as well as a laptop, had been seized.

“I’m under siege, yes, and my life is in danger,” Sibiya claimed.

He told journalists that Thursday’s raid was “meant to disrupt me” ahead of him being a witness at the parliamentary hearing on Monday.

“I know they want to push me out. I’ll never resign. They must fire me,” said Sibiya.

‘I started to fear for my life’

Almost coinciding with Sibiya’s addressing the media on Thursday, was a press conference that Nkabinde called in Sandton.

He told journalists that his flat was raided on Wednesday evening and this had involved about 15 to 20 police officers “wearing camouflage with balaclavas covering their faces [and] with high-calibre rifles”.

Nkabinde said he had not been home at the time, but his brother was, and the officers had apparently mistaken his brother for him.

He claimed that when his brother asked to see a search warrant, the police officers had started assaulting him using firearm butts.

Nkabinde said he contacted his lawyers about what had happened “because I started to fear for my life”.

His lawyers, he said, had in turn contacted Parliament’s ad hoc committee “to report this harassment and intimidation”.

Nkabinde questioned the timing of the raids, saying “evidence” on their gadgets could be removed – evidence needed in the hearings he and Sibiya were still to be called as witnesses.

The national police did not immediately respond to a Daily Maverick query about the Nkabinde raid and the claim he made that his brother was assaulted.

R2bn Tembisa Hospital looting

Meanwhile, before Nkabinde’s press conference, and roughly coinciding with what was happening at Sibiya’s home, a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) operation was held in Sandhurst, another suburb in Gauteng.

During this operation, the SIU on Thursday seized items, including luxury cars, in an operation linked to an investigation into Tembisa Hospital looting.

That investigation is tied to policing matters because one of the individuals identified in it, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, has also been named during Parliament’s ad hoc committee and at the parallel hearing, the Madlanga Commission.

It was previously alleged that Matlala, who faces criminal charges of money laundering and attempted murder, was a key member of a drug trafficking cartel known as the Big Five.

Other accusations against him were that he accessed sensitive police information to further his allegedly criminal activities.

About a week ago, the SIU issued a report on how an investigation into issues at Gauteng’s Tembisa Hospital uncovered “three coordinated syndicates responsible for the looting of over R2-billion”.

According to a press release it issued at the time, one of the syndicates was known as the “Maumela Syndicate”.

“Three of the companies that were awarded contracts to the value of R13,538,292 in this syndicate are linked to Vusimuzi Matlala,” read the statement.

On Thursday, when Parliament’s ad hoc committee was sitting, Matlala’s name surfaced.

This was in relation to a R300-million contract linked to police health services that he was awarded and that was subsequently cancelled.

The parliamentary hearing is expected to resume on Friday when MPs will get a chance to question Masemola. DM