Madlanga Commission | Shadrack Sibiya alleged ally wants to plead his case

Madlanga Commission spokesperson, Jeremy Michaels, has confirmed that efforts are underway to secure testimony from alleged car theft and hijacking suspect Stuart James Scharnick.

James’ name surfaced this week after Crime Intelligence Head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo revealed his alleged close ties to suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya.

The 18-time offender is reportedly the registered owner of a Toyota Hilux bakkie that Sibiya was frequently seen driving late last year. James — believed to have acted as Sibiya’s personal protector — was also spotted alongside him during a recent Parliament Ad Hoc Committee appearance.

Michaels says James has already expressed willingness to cooperate with the inquiry.

“Mr. Scharnick made contact with our legal team and we have put him in contact with commission’s investigators. We will liaise with him regarding his intention to offer the commission evidence or testimony so that’s where the matter is at the moment. We will see how this unfolds over the next few days and weeks,” he said.

Earlier, General Khumalo testified that Sibiya allegedly sent out a January letter concerning the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), suggesting the unit’s impending disbandment.

Khumalo described the letter — purportedly from Sibiya — as confusing and contradictory, saying the deputy commissioner appeared to bypass National Commissioner Fannie Masemola and act beyond his mandate.

He questioned why he, as the project’s leader, was instructed to motivate for the unit’s deactivation without any formal briefing on the matter.

Khumalo also expressed concern over the decision to transfer the 128 PKTT dockets to the National Intervention Unit (NIU) — a structure he says lacks the investigative expertise of the task team.

“The NIU is made up of operatives that have successfully completed an exclusive national intervention training; just like an investigating unit which is essentially made up of investigators. The difference with the task team is that is comprises of experts from different units within the police department. So it would be naive to think that what the task team can do, the unit can also do,” he said.

He told the commission that the letter requesting a preliminary report on the PKTT was emailed to him on January 17th, but had already been backdated with a deadline from the previous day.

Khumalo insisted that the task team had consistently met its mandate of solving politically motivated crimes, and that no other police unit in South Africa matched its success rate.

He added that the previous administration had recommended that the team remain active — contradicting claims by suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who told Parliament he disbanded it based on those same recommendations.

Khumalo said neither he nor Masemola were ever formally briefed on the reasons for the PKTT’s dissolution and described the team’s shock when the letter — allegedly from Sibiya’s office — began circulating on social media in January.

“The confusion that one had when the letter was unofficially trending still continue even untill today. We wanted to know if it was a preliminary report which speaks to the team’s disbandment or how it came about. So we had a lengthy discussion hence the report that was submitted ended up having both,” Khumalo added.

Written by: Odirile Rabalao