South Africa’s suspended deputy national commissioner for crime detection spent Thursday in the dock at Randburg, and left it still a prisoner.
Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, 59, has been in Kgosi Mampuru II since his arrest on 21 September at The Grand in Sandton. The unit that took him in was the Madlanga Commission’s Recommendations Task Team. On Thursday prosecutors widened the case again, and the magistrate sent the bail fight to Friday.
The new count is under the Firearms Control Act. The State says a firearm was stored in his vehicle when he was arrested. That takes the charge sheet to six. His lawyers attacked the timing. The first five counts were already enough to keep a Schedule 6 bail application alive: rape, trafficking in persons, and sexual-grooming charges tied to a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman.
What the court heard was blunt. Investigating officer Detective Sergeant Nokukhanya Ndlovu said the 16-year-old is the daughter of a man who had been one of Sibiya’s bodyguards. The State alleges WhatsApp contact between July and August 2026, including sexual advances and a request for explicit videos. Ndlovu also told the court Sibiya allegedly threatened that man, saying it would take him a minute to wipe out him and his family. A separate count alleges the rape of an 18-year-old at a Sandton hotel in May after she had been drinking. Another alleges trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Sibiya denies all of it. He says the encounter with the 18-year-old was consensual. On the material involving the 16-year-old, his account in court papers is that the father sent it and told him the girl had a crush on him. Senior counsel Estelle Kilian has called the charges trumped up and part of a campaign to push him out of the police. He intends to plead not guilty. None of this has been tested at trial.
The State is not moving. Prosecutor Velile Makhasana is opposing bail. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the prosecution does not agree to release and is confident in its case. The grounds on the table are the usual ones in a matter this serious, put harder because of who he is: risk of witness interference, risk he absconds, and an investigation that is still open. Magistrate Hleziphi Mkhasibe adjourned so the defence can keep cross-examining Ndlovu on Friday.
The police service is not waiting for the criminal case. Sibiya has been served with disciplinary notices while in the cells. One expedited hearing under SAPS Regulation 9 is set for 5 October, the track linked to the commission. Another is set for 2 to 6 November and 10 to 20 November. A further notice was served on 30 September.
Friday is not a verdict. It is the next round of a bail hearing that has already put a suspended general, a commission task team, alleged messages to a child, and a firearm count in the same courtroom. Bail has not been decided. The charges remain allegations.
