Suspended deputy national police commissioner for crime detection Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya has labeled the press briefing by KZN police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on July 6 as a “succession battle” within the SAPS.
In the briefing, Mkhwanazi accused SAPS top officials, including Sibiya and police minister Senzo Mchunu, of interfering in police investigations.
Sibiya is implicated in the disbandment of the political killings task team (PKTT) and the transfer of 121 dockets from KwaZulu-Natal to the SAPS head office without the knowledge of his boss, national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola.
He is alleged to have left the dockets in his office for months to obstruct the task team’s progress and shield criminal figures.
Testifying before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating Mkhwanazi’s allegations, Sibiya said Mkhwanazi’s briefing had nothing to do with the PKTT.
“It’s a succession battle within the police,” Sibiya said.
“I know in this case this whole thing is meant to block me.”
He referenced an interview he had with a radio station in which he was asked if he would be interested in taking Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya’s position when he retires. “I said, given an opportunity, I’d go,” he said.
He mentioned that there were rumours about him wanting the national commissioner’s job.
“The national commissioner got up at night and went to see the mother of my child, who was my colleague then, to ask her. I had to write a long email to assure him that I don’t want his job. It never stopped; it went on and on with the national commissioner thinking I wanted him out.”
He added that he doesn’t want to be a national commissioner, but if approached, he’d consider it.
Sibiya said Mkhwanazi misled the nation with the allegations he made.
“South Africans are being taken for a ride, thinking this is about 121 dockets and the PKTT disbandment. For us to be sitting here discussing the 121 dockets is a non-issue; those dockets have been dead for a long time.
“Mkhwanazi is playing the country, and he’s playing a mind game. He knows how to play with words. He knows the things to say and how to say them in a way that moves the country. He wants to play the card that he’s protecting the people of SA.”
Sibiya accused Mkhwanazi of using his social media popularity to get away with anything, saying that if he were the one who held the press briefing and made serious allegations, he would have received backlash.
“If I could stand up and call that press conference, I would be fired from the podium. But some people, because they have a powerful social media presence, have invested in it.”
He criticised Mkhwanazi’s popularity on social media.
“No police officer is allowed to do what Mkhwanazi is doing. You won’t see any provincial commissioner on TikTok; he’s the only one that campaigns on TikTok, and this wins over South Africans. There are a lot of things that are wrong that we’re supporting as a country, and we are creating a monster that no-one is able to control. That’s why he’s able to come to this house and threaten members of this house. We can’t allow such a situation to continue.”
He said the arrest of crime intelligence boss Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo in June “angered” Mkhwanazi.
“That angered Mkhwanazi to an extent that he sent a message of a song by 2Pac that says, ‘I’ll kill them at night while they’re asleep.’ He was furious.”
TimesLIVE
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