Former police minister Bheki Cele blamed for indifference as taxi boss tells Madlanga Commission of secret hitman funds
Controversial Mpumalanga businessman and taxi owner Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni dropped a series of bombshells at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, revealing that former Police Minister Bheki Cele dismissed his safety concerns by telling him that taxi operators “are killing each other anyway”.
Taking the stand for his highly anticipated testimony, Sibanyoni detailed his turbulent history within the taxi industry, the active involvement of corrupt police officers, and the existence of a clandestine “bucket money” fund used to finance contract killings.
Sibanyoni told the Commission that he personally approached Cele to raise alarms regarding his safety and deep-seated corruption within the industry.
According to Sibanyoni, Cele callously dismissed his pleas in isiZulu, stating: “Ufuna ngenzeni mina ngoba vele ematekisini niya bulalana.”
The statement translates roughly to: “What do you want me to do, because in the taxi industry you are killing each other anyway?”
Sibanyoni testified that he had brought forward specific information regarding the inner workings of the taxi business, including details on an alleged criminal cartel and the collusion of police officers with the late businessman Jotham Msibi.
He stated that despite not having all the concrete facts regarding a cartel operating from a specific farm, he wanted to bring the intelligence to the minister’s attention so that the police could conduct a proper investigation.
Narrating his background, Sibanyoni revealed that the first attempt on his life occurred in 2006.
He survived the attack with wounds, which prompted him to leave the taxi industry for two years before making a return in 2008.
He explicitly blamed the late Msibi for orchestrating the 2006 and 2022 ambush and driving him out of the business.
In another startling disclosure, Sibanyoni shed light on how taxi violence is systematically funded.
He testified about the existence of unaccounted-theft funds within taxi associations, referred to internally as “bucket money.”
According to Sibanyoni, these untraceable pools of cash are specifically used to hire izinkabi (hitmen)—predominantly sourced from KwaZulu-Natal—to eliminate rivals in fierce contests over lucrative routes.
Sibanyoni noted that this issue came to the forefront during leadership meetings in 2020 while operators were publicly preaching peace.
He tied his observations back to the historical findings of the Shongwe Commission, which investigated the root causes of taxi violence and discovered that over 100,000 taxis were operating both legally and illegally across the country.
The Madlanga Commission continues to probe deep-seated corruption, infrastructure cartels, and taxi violence within the transport and security sectors.
