Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya’s testimony raises more eyebrows than clarity

DEPUTY national commissioner for crime detection, Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya shocked many people with his evasive answers during his appearance before the portfolio committee that is investigating alleged political interference on police and the criminal justice system this week.

Below are snippets of his answers or attempts at answers and some felt like monologues that dealt much with his supposed nemesis KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

Referring to Lt-Gen Mkhwanazi July 6, 2025 media briefing:

"Maybe I should also wear camouflage. I also used, at some point in my life, I also wore camouflage uniform. Maybe I should also wear one, go and make a conference as well and talk things. But I will be fired from the podium same time. That day, on stage, doing that, I'll be gone.”

When asked about knowing the suspected criminal, Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala:

“We were not friends, but at the same time, I was getting to know him. He was not someone I was really close to; it was just the beginning of getting to know each other more. My interactions with him are just very, very limited.”

Asked if he passed the competency assessment:

"When we get to the competency assessment, it's a document where they say to you, 'there is no wrong or right answer. This is just to look at your character whether you are a strong person, which character you are, you don't even need to spend time on this thing because there is no way you will get this thing right to say you are right or wrong'. So I wrote what I wrote, and the results came the way they came to say you can be suitable here and not here. That is what happened." 

When uMkhonto weSizwe Party MP Vusi Shongwe asked him again: "Did you pass it or you failed?"

"Well it doesn't say you failed it like it's err, it's like, err, whether you passed err, what do you call, err, let me say it was not positive."

MP Shongwe pressed again: "Did you pass or fail?"

"Let me say I failed it."

When ANC MP Xola Nqola asked where the political killings task team's 121 dockets are:

"They are in, err, I take it they will be with the political task team project manager."

Nqola asked why the political killings tasks team dockets were taken:

"They were taken, brought by them to be taken to where they need to be taken to, which is the, err, specialised unit, murder and robbery unit which is mandated to investigate the political killings task team."

When asked if he's a rogue police officer:

"I've never been one in my 37 years old in the service."

When he addressed the media outside his home after his electronic gadgets were confiscated, a week before he appeared before the parliamentary portfolio committee:

"Remember, I have been through the eye of the needle. I have been through this before."

SUNDAY TRIBUNE