Taxi boss Joe Sibanyoni has conceded that he brought little more than his name to a Sanral road tender in Mpumalanga.
The admission came during tense cross-examination by Advocate Sesi Baloyi at the Madlanga Commission on Tuesday.
Social media users have reacted to the exchange, with NOWinSA’s clip of the cross-examination drawing attention on X.
Our earlier report revealed how Sibanyoni and fellow taxi boss Bafana Sindane allegedly demanded protection fees, with a R2.29 million payment trail now before the commission.
The allegations follow the collapse of the earlier Big 5 cartel extortion case against Sibanyoni in May.
Baloyi pins down Sibanyoni on tender fronting
“So it’s really just having your name?” Baloyi asked.
“Yes, that’s all it is, correct,” Sibanyoni replied.
Baloyi then put it to him that this looked “like some kind of fronting” if he brought nothing else to the transaction.
“Correct, yeah,” Sibanyoni answered.
She asked whether he did “absolutely nothing except to benefit from the profits”.
“Yes,” he said.
R2.29 million payment linked to Moloto Road tender
Sibanyoni, president of the South African Local and Long-Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation, accepted that he received R2.29 million in payments from a subcontractor on Sanral’s R3.7 billion Moloto Road upgrade.
He also confirmed that he earned R100,000 a month without providing a service.
He said the subcontractor’s owner, Tengane Thomas Ntuli, needed a “30% local content” partner to win the tender.
Sibanyoni could not point to a regulation that required such an arrangement.
Chief evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson countered that any such requirement would need “some documentary evidence” showing Sibanyoni’s interest in Ntuli’s company.
Sibanyoni said providing it was Ntuli’s responsibility, not his.
He denies the extortion charge.
Bathabile Ntuli, a director of the company, said in an affidavit that the payments “were made under duress as we were fearing for our lives”.
Legal fees questions
The commission also probed R250,000 in legal fees for Jabu Gwabu Mahlangu, who received a life sentence in 2025 for a taxi violence killing.
Sibanyoni said he did not personally make the payments.
“After the [Mahlangu] family came to me, the association did assist to a particular extent,” he said.
He denied facilitating fees for Tshegofatso Richmond “Morwa” Makofane, his former taxi driver.
The commission first heard detailed evidence about the alleged demands on day 169 in August, when it learnt that a mining businessman faced more than R2 million in protection-fee demands.
The charges are extortion and two counts of money laundering.
The commission continues its public hearings on Wednesday.
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