Sibiya challenges Masemola's ‘unlawful' stay-at-home order
Suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya has launched a legal challenge against National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola’s stay-at-home order.
He has labelled the directive as unlawful and unconstitutional.
Sibiya’s legal team, led by Advocate Kameel Premhid, argued that Masemola bypassed the South African Police Service’s own disciplinary regulations in issuing the order.
"The high-water mark of why the stay-at-home order is unlawful is because it did not comply with the mandatory disciplinary regulations that apply to such a decision," said Advocate Kemeel Premhid.
The legal showdown comes as the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System — chaired by Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga — prepares to investigate explosive claims of “police capture".
Premhid told the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday that Sibiya’s case should be ventilated before the commission, not handled internally by Masemola, who is himself implicated in the allegations now before the inquiry.
"A conflicted party can’t sit as the judge in their own cause… the commission must be allowed to perform its function without interference by the National Commissioner," he argued.
He added that the national commissioner was too entangled to preside fairly.
"General Masimola himself is heavily intertwined in the factual matrix… the interdictory relief is needed to prevent him from continuing a parallel disciplinary process."
Allegations of Police Capture
The commission was established earlier this year by President Cyril Ramaphosa after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that senior SAPS leaders were colluding with criminal syndicates, manipulating promotions, and obstructing investigations to shield politically connected figures.
These claims have revived fears that South Africa’s policing structures may have been compromised by networks of corruption and political interference, echoing the state capture scandal uncovered by the Zondo Commission.
The commission was due to start on 1 September, but its hearings have been postponed due to delays in the procurement of essential infrastructure by the Department of Justice. Chairperson Justice Madlanga expressed frustration that weeks had already been lost from the inquiry’s three-month reporting deadline.
For Sibiya, the delay has real consequences: his lawyers argue that without the commission sitting, the disciplinary case against him risks being left in limbo, with the national commissioner continuing to exercise authority that should rightly be tested by the inquiry.
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