General Shadrack Sibiya, Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection, testifies at the Madlanga Commission on 18 February 2026 in Pretoria. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu) Suspended top cop and Deputy National Police Commissioner for Crime Detection, General Shadrack Sibiya, has claimed that MK-aligned influencers on social media conspired against him.
Appearing before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on 18 February 2026, Sibiya said accounts linked to former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party and in favour of KZN provincial commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi attacked him on various platforms and were behind his downfall.
Sibiya was suspended after allegations that he conspired with two criminal masterminds to shutter a political killings task team from KZN that got too close to their action.
“On TikTok, you read things like ‘You touch Mkhwanazi, you touch us’ – there were such messages that would come. I am being tackled politically as well. There’s so much pressure being put on me,” said the policeman, once known as an anti-corruption crusader but who now faces serious graft allegations.
Read more: Shadrack Sibiya caught in the middle of glory and scandal
/file/attachments/orphans/ED_596394_241277.jpg "General Shadrack Sibiya testifies at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry at Brigitte Mabandla Judicial College on 18 February 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)")
There is no love lost between Sibiya and Mkhwanazi, who were once both in the running to become the national police commissioner.
Various witnesses in two probes of police malfeasance have alleged that Sibiya received paymnet from crime kingpins Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and Katiso Molefe, both of whom are in jail on attempted murder and murder charges, among others.
/file/attachments/orphans/2026-02-1813_18_55-Greenshot_913906.jpg "Screengrab of Sergeant Fannie Nkosi, a detectice in Shadrack Sibiya’s office, leaving Katiso Molefe’s home with a white bag, which some suspect included a bribe. (Screenshot: YouTube)")
Sibiya said the police raided his home in October 2025 after the MK party opened a case against him on various charges. He also claimed that Mkhwanazi had sent police to investigate his time at the City of Johannesburg as forensics investigation head, allegedly at the behest of its secretary-general Colleen Makhubele, who was once a short-lived Speaker of the Johannesburg city council.
Read more: Shadrack Sibiya, Hawks linked to alleged interference in KT Molefe’s arrest
Here are two other important strands of evidence from Sibiya’s morning testimony.
Sets out systemic Johannesburg corruption
For years, Sibiya has faced allegations that he misspent on spyware as head of GFIS, the City’s Group Forensic and Investigation Service. He denied that he had purchased grabbers or spyware but claimed to have procured equipment necessary to deal with systemic corruption. Sibiya was the founding head of the unit started by then mayor Herman Mashaba.
“There’s so much crime, so much corruption. At revenue, where people pay their electricity, there are touts who ask you if they can help you – they work with individuals inside. You need to know how many buildings are hijacked and who are the owners. We need the [municipal-owned] entities to see what crimes are being committed in different environments.
“Every now and then, you get a call [from officials] saying ‘I suspect my office is bugged’. State security can’t be in each and every municipality. It was not spying equipment but equipment to monitor all the crimes in the City of Johannesburg, like a [fleet] car pouring petrol 10 times a day.”
Claims instruction to disband Political Killings Task Team came from the top
Sibiya used a document trail to show that the directive to disband the Political Killings Task Team, the action that catalysed Mkhwanazi’s spill-all, was decided by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who is now on paid gardening leave. It was implemented from National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola’s office.
Read more: Senzo Mchunu defends decision to disband National Political Killings Task Team as ‘inevitable’
Sibiya alleged that his name had been appended as author to close-out reports that ended the term of the task team. He showed a trail of correspondence preceding the closure to make a counterpoint: it was not a shock decision made by Mchunu on 31 December 2024, as the commission had repeatedly heard. He also said the task team was never meant to be a permanent structure that would be expanded across the country.
The commission will end in March and is in Phase 2, when all the people who have faced serious allegations have an opportunity to state their case. DM