Suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya has been testifying at the Madlanga inquiry. Corruption is not always revealed by sensational leaks or detailed forensic audits. Sometimes it reveals itself in a single, quiet question asked under oath.
Were there impalas on your farm, or were there not? That question, put to Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya during testimony at theMadlanga Commission of Inquiry, may sound trivial. It is anything but.
In South Africa, the situation has deteriorated to the point that even wildlife issues are raising concerns about police integrity, highlighting just how low standards have become. South Africans are watching this commission because trust in the South African Police Service is delicate. A considerable number of individuals no longer anticipate receiving protection.
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They hope someone arrives, preferably before the crime scene cools. Especially the small ones. In any commission of inquiry, minor, verifiable facts are not distractions.
They are tests. Investigators use them to measure consistency, memory, and candour. A witness who evades the simple always falters on the serious.
That is not cynicism. It is experience. Anyone who has ever watched a courtroom drama knows this, even if our real-life version comes without background music.
Sibiya’s evidence about the impalas followed a familiar and troubling pattern. He began with certainty. He said that no impalas had ever been brought to his home.
The sense of certainty started to fade as the inquiry grew more intense, with mentions of WhatsApp conversations, delivery locations, and accusations concerningVusimuzi Cat Matlalaand approximately twenty impalas. The story shifted. The animals were already living on the property before the farm was purchased a few years ago.
There had only been a casual inquiry about sourcing replacements. Nothing ever came of it. With each clarification, qualifiers multiplied, and the original statement lost its shape.
This is not how unembellished facts behave. Truth does not require constant adjustment under pressure. It remains stable because it is rooted.
You either have impalas on your farm, or you do not. This is not a philosophical debate. Impalas are not abstractions.
They are regulated assets. Permits, veterinary documents, and a record of paperwork all regulate their movements. Nor does one easily forget whether they are on one’s land unless one’s definition of forgetfulness has become extremely flexible.
When a senior police officer, trained for decades to evaluate evidence and detect evasion, struggles to give a clear and consistent account of something so concrete, the inquiry necessarily shifts. The animals fade into the background. Credibility moves to the centre. Credibility is the foundation of policing.
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