Denial and more denials: Suspended head of organised crime Richard Shibiri at the Madlanga Commission this week. Photo: Screenshot
The Madlanga Commission peeled yet another layer of the level of police complicity with organised crime this week as suspended head of organised crime Richard Shibiri conceded to a R70000 loan he took from businessperson and alleged leader of the Big Five cartel, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
“I had planned to build a wall back home and also at my house. We were also renovating my dad’s tombstone in March – that was in my plan – hence I needed extra money to deal with that, knowing that in December I’d be having in excess of R150 000, [from] which I could easily pay back the money,” he said of the 2024 transaction.
His thinking at the time was that he needed to fix his son’s car and rebuild his family property. He said Matlala’s offer came at an opportune moment and it was a loan rather than a request for a favour, a gift.
In recent months, the commission has unveiled Matlala’s links to senior police officials through financial transactions and even romantic relationships.
Head of crime intelligence Dumisani Khumalo previously told the commission that almost 80% of Gaunteng police officers have been captured by crime syndicates.
The Madlanga Commission was established to investigate allegations of corruption, criminal infiltration and political interference within the criminal justice system, set up after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s explosive 6 July media briefing.
During his testimony this week, Shibiri conceded to borrowing R70000 from Matlala in September 2024, saying the money was needed to repair his son’s damaged car, among other things.
The money was deposited into his son’s account, while Shibiri himself had more than R50 000 in his own account.
Recently, suspended deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya responded to accusations by Witnesses F, who claimed he received a gift of 20 impalas delivered to his farm. Sibiya testified he rejected the offer and the impalas were never delivered.
Shibiri further denied the accusation by anonymous police officers, Witness A and B, who claimed he covered up a police investigation where Matlala was a person of interest as a favour to Sibiya.
They claimed Sibiya was responsible for Shibiri’s promotion.
At the ad hoc committee probing similar claims of police collusion with organised crime, the acting police commissioner for detectives and forensic services, Hilda Khosi Senthumule, denied accepting money from Matlala to fund a body enhancement procedure, BBL.
She said her association with Matlala was regrettable and that she should have known better as a senior police official.
The commissioners this week questioned why Shibiri needed financial assistance from a figure already under scrutiny by the police.
His response was that he wanted to erect a wall, for which he needed a loan, with the knowledge that in December o that year he was due for a hefty bonus.
According to his testimony, the loan was repaid in December 2024.
Commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga questioned the timing of the repayment, which happened shortly after police raided Matlala’s home twice in the same month. This also coincided with the disbandment of the political killings task team on 31 December.
After the task team’s disbandment, Mkhwanazi raised the issue within parliament’s police portfolio committee and ultimately hosted a media briefing where he held suspended police minister Menzo Mchunu responsible.
Mkhwanazi also accused Sibiya of enacting Mchunu’s unlawful directive by removing 123 dockets from the task team.
“You saw that the police were catching on to Mr Matlala and you decided that money that had been paid to you, not as a loan, I suggest, you should now suddenly pay back to Mr Matlala to make it look like a loan,” Madlanga said.
Shibiri rejected the suggestion outright: “I say that’s incorrect,” he responded.
If he’d wanted Matlala to give him money that wasn’t a loan, Shibiri countered, “I would’ve preferred he give me cash so there wouldn’t be a trail”.
“So, you chose the convenience of borrowing money from a person that you knew at the time – and you admitted yesterday when my colleagues engaged you – to be alleged to be seriously implicated in criminality,” Madlanga said.
“So, you chose the convenience, instead of using the R50 000 that you had [in excess].”
He said he saw it convenient to take the loan and repay it, “irrespective of whether someone said it’s convenient or not – that was my thinking”.
Different people and households had varied ways on making these decisions, Shibiri said: “But the worst thing I am taking home now is that I agreed to take out a loan from a seriously implicated person.”
He said he took the phrase “seriously implicated” with a pinch of salt as “nobody was charged” and it was [all still] allegations made against Matlala.
Shibiri alleged that some police officers may have been promised promotions in exchange for giving damaging testimony against him at the commission.
Sibiya made a similar claim at the ad hoc committee, accusing Mkhwanazi of a “pre-emptive strike” in the internal battle for the national commissioner’s post.
Shibiri claimed that Witness A, who testified against him, had recently been promoted, suggesting the advancement might have been linked to their cooperation with investigators. He questioned the motive of the anonymous witnesses and police officers who repeated Mkhwanazi’s allegations.
Last week, Shibiri denied offering three brown envelopes to Witness A and B in an attempt to bury crucial evidence and rewrite a case docket which linked a hired killer to Matlala’s firearms.
Matlala’s links to senior police officials were complemented by equally questionable dealings with business partners. North West businessperson Suliman Carrim appeared before the Madlanga commission on Monday and Tuesday where he conceded to losing millions in a business deal with Matlala.
He alleged that Matlala and Mchunu’s alleged middleman, Brown Mogotsi, “played” him out of R8.4 million”. Carrim said he provided R10 million in funding to Matlala’s healthcare company Medicare24, contracted to provide medical service to the South African Police Service.
Months later, the R360 million tender contract was declared invalid due to procurement irregularities. Carrim had only got R1.2 million and had never received the R20 million promised profit.
Carrim became acquainted with Matlala as colleagues within the private security sector. He told the commission he had done sufficient due diligence to the healthcare tender contract and facilities, with the assistance of Mogotsi.
“Brown advised that in order to keep Vusi I should inform Vusi that I have a direct and good relationship with Mchunu and his office. I advised Brown that this was a joke because I had no relationship with the minister or his office,” he said.
Mogotsi has denied playing middleman for Mchunu. He alleged he is a crime intelligence informant who was tasked to investigate corrupt police officers. However, Mogotsi has apologised at the ad hoc committee for unfounded claims where he called Mkhwanazi and Zulu king Misizulu CIA spies.
However, Mogotsi maintained that Mkhwanazi also met with Matlala and should have disclosed his own association with the leader of a criminal syndicate.
“In hindsight, it is clear that Brown was playing me,” Carrim said. “I also suspect that he was not acting alone and that Vusi was on it too. When one considers the messages, it is clear I was caught in the middle.”
