A year after taxi boss Joe Sibanyoni warned President Cyril Ramaphosa that Mpumalanga business organisations would “interfere with the Putco business”, 51 Putco buses were set alight, the Madlanga commission heard on Wednesday.
In a video shown before the commission, Sibanyoni can be heard telling Ramaphosa and mineral & petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe that business organisations wanted a 30% stake in Putco’s business operation in KwaNdebele.
“Putco has been operating here for 43 years. Please assist us. When you find someone wanting to interfere with the Putco business, you must know it is us,” Sibanyoni can be heard saying in the video.
A year later, in January 2025, 51 buses were burnt at three Putco depots leaving a trail of costly damage in Nkangala district, Mpumalanga. The bus company transports about 20,000 commuters in the district.
During cross-examination, Sibanyoni said he meant “engaging” with Putco when he said “interfere” in the conversation with Ramaphosa.
He said he was in talks with Putco on behalf of Gauteng Central Bus Services (GCBS), an organisation that wanted to work with Putco.
“I have mentioned that I was speaking on behalf of the community. There you see the community burning buses; it’s not me. You see the video; it is not me. Can we not personalise this matter?” Sibanyoni said, referring to the video of buses burning.
He denied any involvement in the burning of buses.
Evidence before the Madlanga commission suggests that a month after Putco buses were reduced to ashes, Taxi Choice, the business wing of the South African National Taxi Council headed by Sibanyoni, made an unsolicited offer to Putco to buy their entire business operation in KwaNdebele.
“Two days after the buses had been burnt, you are in communication with Mr [Oupa] Sindane about buying buses and a month later Taxi Choice makes an unsolicited offer to purchase the whole fleet,” evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson said to Sibanyoni.
He added that the “interfere” speech Sibanyoni made to Ramaphosa and the unsolicited offer “seem to me to point to a single process where Putco is being placed under pressure to sell … to Taxi Choice”.
Sibanyoni is listed as a chair of Taxi Choice and James Chapman as MD.
Sibanyoni denied being responsible for the attack on Putco.
While Sibanyoni told the commission that before making the unsolicited offer to Putco he and Putco MD Franco Pisapia had engaged about the proposed deal, Chaskalson said Putco denied there were ever such talks.
Pisapia, in a scathing letter to Taxi Choice, said the company found the offer to be “calculated” as it was made a month after an attack on its business.
“The timing and content of your letter appear to be disturbingly calculated in light of the recent carefully orchestrated and heinous attacks on both Putco’s employees and fleet of buses. At the outset, Putco is not on the market,” the letter reads.
Sibanyoni said the offer made to Putco was not an isolated proposal. He said Taxi Choice had made similar proposals to other companies.
This included FlySafair for a stake in aviation, Traxtion Services for a stake in rail services, bus company Autopax for a stake in or the whole of Autopax as a going concern and North West Transport Investment (NTI) for a stake in or the whole of NTI as a going concern.
Sibanyoni, president of the South African Local and Long-Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation, is in court facing a criminal charge of extorting money from Tengane Thomas Ntuli, who owns a company that supplied aggregate stone to the R573 project of the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) in Mpumalanga.
Sibanyoni, an alleged extortion cartel leader, in that case also raised the issue of the “30% local content” requirement.
On criminal infiltration of law enforcement, Sibanyoni told the commission he “knew” that suspended police deputy national commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya “reported” to his (Sibanyoni’s) former boss Jotham Msibi.
“We knew at the time that he was reporting at the farm. Whoever was reporting at the farm I take it they were carrying out Mr Msibi’s instructions,” he said.
He said if a senior police officer was reporting to Msibi it was “dangerous”.
Sibanyoni’s right-hand man, Oupa “Bafana” Sindane, has been subpoenaed to appear before the commission investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in law enforcement.
Sindane is expected to answer questions on his talks with police officers in facilitating police to escort Sibanyoni.
BusinessDay
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