Deputy national police commissioner of crime detection Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya’s court bid to return to work is set to be heard in the Pretoria high court on Wednesday.
On July 15, Sibiya was instructed to “stay at home” by national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola, “pending the outcome of an investigation”. In a letter to Sibiya, Masemola said his office was “gravely alarmed” by the allegations that had been made at a press conference by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
TimesLIVE reported that Mkhwanazi’s allegations, in which he implicated police minister Senzo Mchunu, Sibiya, several law enforcement bodies and members of the judiciary in colluding in high-level crime, led to President Cyril Ramaphosa establishing a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate.
Sibiya asked the court to set aside Masemola’s stay-at-home direction and interdict the police from conducting any “parallel proceedings” in relation to Mkhwanazi’s allegations.
In his court papers, Sibiya said the “stay at home” instruction was effectively a suspension and unlawful on several grounds. These included that it violated the regulations that applied to police disciplinary matters. Masemola’s proposed investigation was also unlawful as it “usurped the functions” of the Madlanga Commission, he said.
However, Masemola said in his court papers that Sibiya was not being directed to stay at home or being investigated over the allegations made by Mkhwanazi. Instead, Sibiya’s infraction was that he disobeyed Masemola’s orders in the way he went about the disbandment of the political killings task team.
Last week, Sibiya filed a supplementary affidavit to bring to the court's attention a new notice of intended suspension or transfer served on him on August 20, his response the next day, and the national commissioner's reply dated August 22.
“The purpose of my new notice is to suspend me while I am already on suspension. I submit that this new notice amounts to a further concession by the national commissioner that he failed to follow proper procedure when he issued me with my 'stay at home' order,” Sibiya said.
Sibiya said in his new notice Masemola was distancing himself from the fact that Sibiya had executed Masemola's instruction to disband the political killings task team in line with the directive that had been issued by Mchunu, whereas in his answering affidavit, Masemola alleged that his complaint was that Sibiya did not disband it in the manner Masemola wanted.
“The national commissioner has to date failed to provide the court, or myself, with any proof of his instructions that I disband the political killings task team in a phase-out manner, as alleged in his answering affidavit. I submit he has failed to do so because none exists.”
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