Sibiya's disciplinary hearing postponed to next week as Labour Court bid runs alongside
SAPS says the two processes are separate, the Labour Court matter is sub judice, and the suspended deputy national commissioner still has to answer the allegations against him.
Suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya’s disciplinary hearing has been postponed to next week so that he can consult his legal representatives, and his separate urgent application to halt the internal process was adjourned in the Labour Court to allow papers to be filed.
The postponement was confirmed on Monday. Alongside the disciplinary hearing, Sibiya’s legal team has filed an urgent application seeking to stop the South African Police Service from continuing with its internal proceedings. Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said the Labour Court matter was heard but adjourned so that SAPS could file its opposing papers and Sibiya’s team could file a replying affidavit.
Mathe said the two processes are separate but have been running in parallel. She said the Labour Court matter remains sub judice and that SAPS will therefore not comment on the merits.
Sibiya faces allegations of corruption and links to underworld figures following evidence presented before the Madlanga Commission. A disciplinary charge is not a finding of guilt, and he retains the right to respond to the allegations against him.
Labour law expert Osborne Molatudi, speaking to eNCA, which reported the postponement and published his analysis on 6 October, set out how the two tracks work. He said the Labour Relations Act requires an employer to follow a procedure that is fair and in line with applicable workplace policies, and that any decision taken at the end of the process will be tested against that same standard of procedural fairness.
“At the end of the day, once a decision is made, that decision will be tested against that very same principle, whether, you know, the employer’s decision was procedurally fair,” Molatudi said.
He drew a clear line between a disciplinary inquiry and a criminal process. A disciplinary inquiry determines whether an employee has committed misconduct. Criminal proceedings determine whether a person is guilty of alleged crimes. An employer is not required to wait for the outcome of a criminal case before starting its own internal process, he said, because waiting would leave employers unable to act for as long as a prosecution runs.
“So essentially, what this means is that SAPS is perfectly within its right to continue the disciplinary process of General Sibiya,” Molatudi said. “And once that process is finalised, Sibiya will still have to answer the issues around the alleged crimes against him in a separate forum. The same applies to the Labour Court proceedings.”
For ordinary South Africans, the practical question is what the process means for the police service itself. The deputy national commissioner post sits near the top of SAPS command, and a disciplinary process at that level carries consequences for how the service is run while it unfolds. The hearing is an internal employment process. It is not a criminal trial, and no court has yet made a finding against Sibiya. The allegations he faces were aired before the Madlanga Commission, and the commission’s work is a separate process from both the disciplinary hearing and the Labour Court application.
The two-track structure is common in South African employment law and is not unique to this case. Employers routinely run internal disciplinary processes while criminal or civil matters proceed in parallel, and the Labour Court is regularly asked to test whether an employer’s procedure was fair. That is the question the court would weigh if Sibiya’s application proceeds. It is a question about process, not about whether the underlying allegations are true.
SAPS has not commented on the merits because the Labour Court matter is sub judice. The service has said it will file opposing papers, and Sibiya’s legal team will file a replying affidavit. The disciplinary hearing is set down for next week.
The Enquirer will follow the Labour Court application and the disciplinary hearing as they develop, and will report the outcomes when they are handed down.
Source: eNCA, Sibiya disciplinary case: Expert explains what happens next
