Shadrack Sibiya, the police officer who until July 2025 commanded South Africa's detectives, crime intelligence and forensic services, has been charged with raping an 18-year-old woman, trafficking three people for sexual exploitation and grooming a 16-year-old girl. As deputy national police commissioner for crime detection, Sibiya oversaw the detectives and forensic analysts who investigate rape across the country. Sibiya, 59, denies the charges and says he will plead not guilty.

Officers from the Madlanga Commission's Recommendations Task Team arrested Sibiya in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Monday 21 September. President Cyril Ramaphosa set up the commission in July 2025 after Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner, accused senior officers and politicians of protecting criminal syndicates and named Sibiya as the officer who removed 121 political killings case files from his province. Sibiya was placed on leave that month.

Sibiya applied for bail at the Randburg Magistrates' Court on 29 September. The magistrate postponed the hearing to Thursday 1 October at the state's request, and Sibiya remains in the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria.

Fannie Masemola, the national police commissioner, has been suspended since April, and Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane is acting in his place. Firoz Cachalia has been acting police minister since August 2025, when Ramaphosa placed Senzo Mchunu on leave. Police have found the bodies of 10 women around Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, since mid-July.

The charges

Sibiya faces five counts: rape, trafficking in persons, promoting the sexual grooming of a child and two counts of sexual grooming of a child. Prosecutors allege that on 16 May a man identified in the charge sheet as Mr M came to collect three young women from a Garden Court hotel in Sandton and arrived "in the company of the accused, who at that stage was unknown to them". Sibiya then took the women, among them the 18-year-old complainant, to The Grand, a strip club in Sandton, and paid for their food and alcohol, the charge sheet says.

The charge sheet alleges Sibiya raped the woman back at the hotel "whilst she was passed out due to intoxication administered by the accused" and afterwards told her friends she had been a virgin. The trafficking count alleges he "unlawfully and intentionally delivered, recruited or transported" the three women "through the abuse of vulnerability, deception or abuse of power, for the purpose of sexual exploitation". The preamble to the charge sheet dates the trafficking to 16 July, while the count itself and the rape count give 16 May.

The girl's father, an associate of Sibiya, gave him her contact details in July, according to the charge sheet. Prosecutors allege Sibiya contacted the girl on WhatsApp between 20 July and 3 August, sent her sexually explicit messages, asked her on 24 July to send him sexual videos and sent her naked images of herself that she had never sent to him. Her father found the messages and opened a case at the Sandton police station, the Saturday Star reported.

Inez Bezuidenhout of the University of the Free State's law faculty said rape in the circumstances listed in part 1 of schedule 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act carries a prescribed sentence of life imprisonment, from which a court may depart only if it finds "substantial and compelling circumstances". Trafficking in persons carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or a fine of up to 100m rand under the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2013. Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, the national police spokesperson, said investigators had "overwhelming evidence" before the case went to prosecutors.

First court appearance

Sibiya first appeared at the Randburg Magistrates' Court on 22 September and did not plead. The state opposed bail and asked for him to be held at Kgosi Mampuru II instead of a police cell or the Johannesburg Central Correctional Centre. Kaizer Kganyago, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), said: "He might escape in a case where he is put in a police station or at the Johannesburg Central Correctional [Facility]."

Prosecutors told the court that people linked to Sibiya were trying to interfere with witnesses and that the interference was still happening at about 2pm that day. The state said it holds voice notes recording the attempts and will play them at the bail hearing. "There is intimidation, there are threats, possible threats, and it could even be from the suspect himself," Kganyago said.

Guards from Fidelity Security, the private firm contracted for court security, kept journalists out of the courtroom, although no application had been made to exclude the media. Kganyago later described the exclusion as unacceptable.

Bishop Maumela, an ANC member and a friend of Sibiya, told reporters outside the court that Sibiya was the target of a police succession battle. "If the president cannot intervene, we're going to retaliate, because we cannot have law enforcement that has been used to target individuals," he said. On 24 September Maumela withdrew his remarks about Ramaphosa, the police and the Madlanga Commission and apologised. "I did not intend to threaten, harm or intimidate anyone. I accept full responsibility for the manner in which I handled the media engagement," he said.

Bail hearing

Estelle Kilian SC, Sibiya's counsel, read his affidavit to the court on 29 September. "When we arrived in the hotel room and other ladies left the room, MC and myself were left in the room. We proceeded to have consensual intercourse," Sibiya said in the affidavit. He said the woman stayed in contact with him afterwards and told him she wanted to meet again.

Sibiya denied grooming the 16-year-old girl. He said her father told him he had received a sexual video of his daughter "from an undisclosed source" and sent it to Sibiya while "expressing his disappointment".

Sibiya accused the Recommendations Task Team of bringing the case to force him out of the police. "The current case was trumped up against me," he said in the affidavit. "The obvious but crucial question that needs to be answered by the state is why the CRTT and its members involve themselves in matters that clearly did not emerge from the commission scope or mandate."

Sibiya said he is his family's main breadwinner, is not a flight risk and will not interfere with witnesses. Rashad Moosa, an advocate called as a defence witness, said Sibiya contacted the authorities on 17 August to offer his cooperation and cooperated with officers when he was arrested. Prosecutors asked for time to examine documents submitted during the testimony and to consult the NPA before cross-examining. The charges are Schedule 6 offences, so Sibiya must show the court exceptional circumstances before he can be released.

Reaction

Dimpane said: "Police officers are entrusted with protecting women and children. They cannot themselves be implicated in conduct that undermines this responsibility. As the country continues to confront the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide, there can be no room for anyone within the police service who is alleged to abuse their position or violate the rights of women and children."

Cachalia said: "We strongly condemn the alleged conduct. Where allegations of sexual offences are made against a member of the service, they must be investigated without fear or favour."

Ian Cameron, chair of Parliament's portfolio committee on police, said: "These are extremely serious allegations against a person who served at one of the highest levels of the police service." He said Sibiya "is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and these allegations must be properly ventilated and tested before a court of law", and that "if Lieutenant General Sibiya is ultimately found guilty of these offences, there can be no place for him in the SAPS".

Kholofelo Rakubu, a criminologist at the Tshwane University of Technology, said: "When a senior officer responsible for crime detection faces allegations as serious as rape, there is an immediate institutional credibility challenge."

Sibiya's career and the Madlanga Commission

Sibiya led the Gauteng branch of the Hawks, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, until 2015, when he was suspended and then dismissed over the alleged illegal rendition of five Zimbabwean nationals in 2010. The Labour Court ruled the dismissal procedurally and substantively unfair. Innocent Khuba, the IPID investigator who led the rendition inquiry, told the Zondo commission on state capture in 2019: "It seems that the whole investigation was aimed at getting rid of General Dramat," referring to Anwa Dramat, then head of the Hawks.

Sibiya headed forensic and investigation services at the City of Johannesburg from 2016 to 2023. In June 2023 he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed deputy national commissioner for crime detection, which put crime intelligence, forensic services and detective services under his command.

Mkhwanazi told a press briefing on 6 July 2025 that Mchunu had disbanded the KwaZulu-Natal Political Killings Task Team and that the team's case files had been taken to police head office in Pretoria. Mchunu signed the directive disbanding the team in December 2024. Sibiya told a parliamentary ad hoc committee in October 2025 that Mkhwanazi had misled the nation and that he was not a rogue officer.

Sibiya acknowledged at the Madlanga Commission in February 2026 that he took control of 121 of the task team's case files, which were not investigated for three months, and that he followed his own plan for disbanding the team instead of the approved one. He said he had acted on directives from Mchunu and Masemola. "I just feel I am being punished for being effective," he said. Mchunu testified in October 2025 that his directive contained "no word, no word at all, about dockets".

Sibiya also denied at the commission that he had received a gift of 20 impalas from Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala, a businessman whose company Medicare24 won a 360m rand (£16.7m) police health services contract soon after the alleged gift. Matlala declined to answer questions about the impalas when he appeared before the commission on 26 August, saying he did not want to incriminate himself. He told the commission he had never paid Sibiya himself but alleged that a police sergeant, Fannie Nkosi, collected money from people in Gauteng on Sibiya's behalf. He refused to name the people.

The commission's second interim report, delivered on 29 May 2026, named Sibiya among four people and recommended disciplinary proceedings and an immediate criminal investigation into his conduct. Ramaphosa has extended the deadline for the commission's final report to 25 January 2027.

Matlala and four co-accused, including his wife Tsakani Matlala, went on trial in the Johannesburg High Court on 20 July on 25 charges including conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, possession of prohibited firearms, fraud and money laundering. The state alleges he paid for three attempted killings: of the taxi businessman Joe Sibanyoni in Centurion on 10 August 2022, the actress Tebogo Thobejane in Bryanston on 17 October 2023 and the DJ Austin Mokubong, known as DJ Vetty, in Pretoria West on 29 January 2024. All five accused deny the charges. A Hawks officer identified as Witness I told the Madlanga Commission in June that he had secretly lived at Matlala's home.

Masemola had four charges under the Public Finance Management Act withdrawn at the Pretoria Magistrates' Court on 22 September, hours before Sibiya's first appearance. He had been charged on 16 April as the 17th accused in the case against Matlala over the Medicare24 contract, about 50m rand of which was paid before Masemola cancelled it. Andy Mothibi, the national director of public prosecutions, found insufficient grounds to prosecute. The NPA said it would ask the judge overseeing the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption to examine how the charges came to be brought. Masemola has not returned to work.

Rape and sexual assault by South African police officers

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) registered 98 rape cases against police officers in 2024/25 and 116 in 2025/26, Lizzy Suping, the directorate's spokesperson, said. In 51 of the 2024/25 cases and 72 of the 2025/26 cases the officer was on duty. IPID figures published by the Democratic Alliance in January 2026 show 122 rape cases against officers in 2022/23 and 110 in 2023/24. Two of the alleged rapes in 2024/25 involved people held in police custody.

IPID figures to 31 March 2026 record 85 criminal convictions of police officers, nine of them for rape. Bheki Cele, then police minister, told Parliament in a written reply in 2023 that 3,981 of the 5,489 officers arrested since 2019 were still employed by the police and that 430 had been convicted. Cachalia listed 164 officers convicted of crimes over the previous 10 years in a reply to Parliament in May 2026, some of whom remained in the service because disciplinary investigations were incomplete.

IPID investigates complaints against officers, but the police decide whether to discipline them. Of 686 cases IPID referred for discipline in 2020/21, 41 ended in dismissal or suspension, according to an analysis by David Bruce for the Institute for Security Studies of figures the police and IPID gave Parliament in August 2021. Of 179 officers found guilty in those cases, 138 received a warning or corrective counselling. The 686 cases included 25 alleged rapes. IPID's 2025/26 annual performance plan records "low compliance levels by SAPS with IPID's recommendations". The directorate had 387 investigators for the year and carried 14,463 open cases into it.

Frederick Soldaat, a warrant officer in Montagu, Western Cape, was sentenced to 25 years in April 2025 for raping a 15-year-old girl in the victim trauma room of the Montagu police station on 30 August 2016. Soldaat, who was on duty, had driven the girl to the station with her mother's consent after the two argued at home. He was arrested on 2 September 2016 and convicted in March 2025.

Thembalethu Gqeku, a sergeant at Kei Mouth police station in the Eastern Cape, was convicted in May 2025 and sentenced to 20 years for raping a 17-year-old inside the station on 8 August 2022. Gqeku was investigating her domestic violence complaint and called her to his office on the pretext of taking a further statement, then locked the door. She hit him with a bottle and reported him at the charge office, but officers at the station did not arrest him. IPID arrested him 10 days later.

A 46-year-old sergeant from Inanda, Durban, appeared at the Ntuzuma Magistrates' Court on 9 September 2026 accused of sexually assaulting two girls, one of them 15, at his home in Amatikwe on 3 September. Police said he had found the girls stranded in central Durban and offered them shelter. IPID has taken over the investigation.

Killings in Ekurhuleni

Police found the body of a 10th woman in Thembisa, Ekurhuleni, on 26 September. The first body was found in mid-July, and six were found in 10 days in early September. Most of the women were in their 20s or 30s. Several were naked or partly clothed when found, and the first had been tied with cable ties. Her boyfriend was arrested and released without charge. Two women have been charged with the murder of the ninth victim, whose death police described as a relationship-related matter.

Tommy Mthombeni, the Gauteng police commissioner, said: "We have put highly capable investigators on this case." He said the ninth killing may not be linked to the others but that some of the deaths were similar. Ramaphosa said: "This continues to make us very sad, and in many ways, it's a shame on the men of South Africa."