Madlanga Hearings Lay Bare Web of Power, Crime and Influence

By CHRIS MAKHAYE

If Joe "Ferrari" Sibanyoni thought he would cruise through his testimony this week like he did previously, windows down, Bible on the dashboard, he was mistaken.

Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga's Commission parked his Ferrari for good.

And he was not the only one who learned that a subpoena is not a suggestion.

CRUISE CONTROL

On Tuesday, the Mpumalanga taxi boss walked in swaggering, expecting another soft ride. Commissioner Sesi Baloyi SC had other plans.

She pinned him to a SANRAL R573 Moloto Road tender where he pocketed 30% for doing nothing.

"So it's really just having your name?" she asked.

"Yes, that's all it is, correct," Sibanyoni conceded.

"Which on the face of it seems like some kind of fronting?"

"Correct, yeah."

"You did absolutely nothing except to benefit from the profits?"

"Yes."

It was the sound of a man admitting what the province has whispered for years – that the construction mafia wears a taxi badge.

Evidence leader Adv Matthew Chaskalson SC then read the WhatsApps that finished him. Not from Sibanyoni's phone, but from his co-accused Bafana "King of the Sky" Sindane's phone – messages to businessman Dr Tengane Ntuli, whose quarry fed the same road project.

"Good day bab' Ntuli... I demand a response, within 48 hours, detailing why the operation should not be stopped," Sindane wrote, after payments allegedly dropped from R100,000.

Chaskalson called it what it is: "Essentially an extortion racket enforced with threats of violence." The paper trail shows R2.29 million.

Sibanyoni's defence: Sindane acted alone. "He was acting on his own."

Commissioner Sandile Khumalo SC was not buying it.

Then came Putco.

Video was played of Sibanyoni at a 2024 ANC event in KwaNdebele, with President Ramaphosa and Gwede Mantashe in the room: "We want to play a role... We are busy engaging with Putco... you must know it's us... We want 30%."

On 27 January 2025, 50 PUTCO buses were torched at Moloto, Wolwekraal, Siyabuswa and Vaalbank. Workers tied up. One shot. Sibanyoni: "It was not me, let's not personalise this."

He also admitted paying legal fees for Calvin "Gwabo" Mahlangu, a convicted hitman in taxi killings. Why? "His mother asked me."

He ended, as he always does when cornered, quoting Matthew 5:11-12 – blessed are those persecuted.

NO SHOW

If Sibanyoni thought the Bible would save him, sacked Crime Intelligence Deputy Head Major-General Feroz Khan thought a doctor's note would.

On Monday, Khan was due to finally testify, in person or virtually, after being shot in Houghton in June on the eve of his appearance. An independent psychiatrist, Dr Mayaven Naidoo, had cleared him to testify virtually from a familiar, controlled environment.

Khan did not log on. Did not pitch. Nothing.

His lawyer, Advocate Mohammed Valey, said they misread the report, that conditions were not in place. Justice Madlanga snapped. "You have disregarded the subpoena. His non-appearance today is a flagrant disregard of a subpoena. I take a very dim view of that."

Then he did what he did to North West businessman Younus Carrim in August – he ordered Commission Secretary Dr Nolitha Vukuza to lay criminal charges.

Carrim's story is now a template. First witness to be criminally charged by Madlanga. Collapsed at a gym in April, claimed heart attack, five postponements, produced his own doctor who said he could not consent to an independent assessment, while evidence leaders proved he was shopping at Woolworths and Kauai in Cape Town. Madlanga called his doctor a "hired gun" and said: "That is the end of the road."

Khan now joins him. Same Act, same offence – failure to attend after subpoena – up to R1,093 fine or six months jail, plus contempt.

The irony is delicious. The men who allegedly ran a parallel state now hide behind medical certificates.

Khan will still have to talk. But behind closed doors. The Commission has ordered he will testify in camera on Tuesday, 6 October, on evidence led about him on 7 and 9 July. No press. No public. No broadcast.

DARK ROOM

That brings us to Witness S.

On 1 October, evidence leaders, through attorney Geraldine Burger, applied to have Witness S, a former Crime Intelligence officer, testify entirely in camera.

Why? Because his evidence is about undercover operations to infiltrate a syndicate that had itself infiltrated SAPS. The records are declassified for the Commission only, not for public consumption. Burger told the court: "Unless he is to testify in camera, it will not be possible for him to give most of the evidence."

If he testifies in public, informants die, operations collapse.

Madlanga agreed.

THE BALLOT RECESS

And then, the pause.

The Madlanga Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels announced: No public hearings on 3 October, in-camera only in the week of 5 October, then darkness.

Public hearings resume 9 November, five days after the 4 November local government elections.

Michaels was blunt: "Media coverage and livestreaming will be difficult in the run-up to and immediately after the elections."

Translation: the Commission does not want to become an election weapon, and it does not want to compete with ballot counts.

During October it will hold a two-day closed seminar to draft.

Phase Two will then wrap up – suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu must finally take the stand. Phase Three – KZN Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi returns to the hot seat.

Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala, who was subpoenaed late on 25 September and has had some disputes with his lawyers, is pushed to 14 December.

And President Ramaphosa, on 19 September, quietly signed what Michaels calls the final extension. From 31 August original, to 16 November, now to 25 January 2027 for the final report. Evidence must close on 2 October. The Presidency said without it, the Commission "would have to leave large parts of its work unfinished."

It is the third time the President extends the life of a Commission that has already laid criminal charges, exposed a R2.29m extortion trail, 50 torched buses, tender fronting, and doctors writing convenient sick notes.

The bill, as Ferrari is learning, always arrives. TQ