Johannesburg – The curious faces in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court seemed to wonder how a very senior police officer, one year shy of 60, could admit to sleeping with an 18-year-old woman whom he hardly knew.
Desperate to get bail, the suspended South African Police Service (SAPS) deputy national commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, who has been arrested for rape, sat sideways, with his left hand covering parts of his face.
His lawyer, Estelle Kilian SC, on Thursday, 1 October 2026, tried to push back on the state’s contention that the top cop took advantage of the young woman after plying her with alcohol.
Earlier, Detective Sergeant Nokukhanya Ndlovu, attached to the Commission Recommendations Task Team, detailed how four young women intent on having a fun outing ended up with a “controlling old man”.
According to the evidence, one of the teenagers asked her dad to drive the young women to a hotel in Sandton, where they checked in.
It so happened that the dad, on chauffeur duty and who cannot be named, was a subordinate of Lieutenant General Sibiya.
Unbeknownst to the dad, his 59-year-old boss had allegedly been grooming the policeman’s 16-year-old daughter.
The faces in the gallery said it all when Sergeant Ndlovu told the court that the accused Sibiya had asked the teenager to send him videos of herself masturbating.
Some of the men squirmed in embarrassment, others hung their heads in shame, while a few brave women stared at the back of Sibiya’s bald head in disbelief.
The court heard how, on the day in question, Sibiya allegedly ordered the young women “to dress” classy before he and the chauffeur took them to a strip club in Sandton, where they were offered food and alcohol.
After that, they went back to the Sandton hotel, where the accused allegedly enticed the young women to a game of “dare” that involved quaffing copious amounts of alcohol.
At his last appearance, the accused claimed the sex was consensual, but today, the detective told the court the young woman was plied with so much alcohol that she fell asleep.
Ndlovu said one of the girls got sick and started throwing up before two of the girls took her to the reception area to get help.
While they were out of their hotel room. The “controlling old” man allegedly pounced on the sleeping 18-year-old and violated her.
Detailing the assault, Ndlovu said that when the woman woke up in the morning, her panties had been removed and there were blood stains on her private parts.
Ndlovu said during her investigations one of the witnesses told her that when the accused emerged from the room he said the 18-year-old “was not a virgin” and that she was “nice”.
Sibiya’s subordinate and the rape survivor reported the matter to the police, Ndlovu recalled.
In the gallery, it was hands to the head.
The accused was biting his lips and avoiding eye contact.
The discomfort in the court was palpable.
Then there were the audio recordings in which Bishop Maumela accused the police of wrongly arresting his mate, Sibiya, who he said was a victim of factional battles for ascendancy to the top job.
Ndlovu said the bishop even tried to find out the name of the rape survivor so that he could talk things over with her on behalf of Sibiya.
To push back on the negative impression created by the bishop, Kilian SC told the court that he had acted on his own accord.
She read out an affidavit by one of Sibiya’s children swearing that her father had not sent the bishop to act on his behalf.
It was getting hot, and the accused was seen taking off his jacket.
The hour hand on the clock struck three, while the defence was trying to pick holes in Ndlovu’s testimony.
It was half an hour away from the time the accused had to be transported back to Kgosi Mampuru maximum prison in Pretoria.
Kilian SC, for the defence, pointed out that the accused did not drive the “girls” to the hotel and did not pay for their room – meaning he did not traffic them, as suggested by one of the charges levelled against the lieutenant-general.
Then it was time to call it a day.
The arrested top cop seemed resigned to his fate – another night in the slammer.
The bail hearing continues tomorrow, Friday, 2 October 2026.
