Suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya faced intense questioning over his knowledge of alleged criminal cartel kingpin Vusimuzi Matlala nicknamed “Cat” attending a private party at his home in September 2024.
Sibiya appeared before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry in Pretoria, where evidence leader Adv Adila Hassim challenged his earlier statements about Matlala’s presence.
Hassim questioned Sibiya on whether inviting Matlala, a service provider for the police, to a private, intimate affair contradicted SAPS regulations on managing conflicts of interest. “Isn’t this a risk, quite apart from criminality, that you may be seen as biased in favour of a service provider?” she asked.
Sibiya responded, saying he considered the matter carefully. “I would apply my mind in having to invite someone that I know is a service provider in the detective space, but the supply chain is a division on its own, which is far from where I am; I don’t even know the people who sit on how tenders are allocated, so I’m far from that space. I know him as a stakeholder in the police, and that being the case, it’s not like it’s the first time it’s happening with Matlala,” he said.
He added: “Moving to the second part and say ‘what happens to the goose must also happen to the gander,’” implying that similar interactions had occurred before without consequence.
The exchange marks another critical moment in the ongoing inquiry into Sibiya’s conduct and potential conflicts of interest within the SAPS.