The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry has moved to bring a socialite’s claims of police influence within its own investigative reach, announcing that it will obtain a statement from Serge Cabonge after audio recordings surfaced in which he allegedly claimed to have used his police connections to help secure the withdrawal of criminal charges against the daughter of a man linked to the commission.
Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels confirmed the step in a statement issued on Tuesday, saying the inquiry had noted the voice recordings attributed to Cabonge, which were played during the bail hearing of former deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court. “Mr Cabonge has previously been mentioned at hearings before the Commission. The Commission will engage with Mr Cabonge and obtain his statement as part of its broad investigation into matters falling within its terms of reference and his mention of the Commission in the recording,” Michaels said. The commission added that it would make no further comment at this stage.
The decision signals that the commission, established to investigate criminality, political interference and corruption within South Africa’s criminal justice system, intends to establish further details about Cabonge’s claims and his reference to a person allegedly connected to its own proceedings. By its own account, the inquiry is treating the recording as a matter falling squarely within its terms of reference rather than leaving it to be litigated elsewhere.
The recordings were played in court during the continuation of Sibiya’s bail hearing, where the state is opposing his release on allegations involving rape, the sexual grooming of a minor and human trafficking. According to reporting by IOL, the recording runs for approximately 25 minutes and captures a conversation between Cabonge and a man identified in court only as Mr M, whose identity is being withheld to protect his teenage daughter. The full report can be read at https://iol.co.za/news/crime-and-courts/madlanga-commission-to-question-socialite-serge-cabonge-over-police-links-claims/
In the conversation, Cabonge allegedly described a close relationship with a man he said was sitting in the front row of the Madlanga Commission hearings. He claimed the man had previously been a judge president, and that he had helped the man’s family when his daughter faced charges following a collision in Sandton involving a woman carrying a child. According to Cabonge’s account, the woman’s mother approached him for assistance after police began making inquiries into the incident. He claimed he obtained the case number, contacted people to check the matter and used his connections to intervene, and that the case was withdrawn within approximately a week of his involvement. The recording did not identify the man allegedly linked to the commission, and no name was mentioned during the conversation.
The provenance and authenticity of the recording formed part of the evidence placed before the court. Detective-Sergeant Nokukhanya Ndlovu, the investigating officer in Sibiya’s case, reportedly told the court that Mr M had confirmed the conversation was his and that the recording was authentic. Ndlovu said the recording had allegedly been sent to Sibiya’s wife, Sizakele Dlamini, and that she had been verifying an affidavit submitted by Dlamini, along with supporting documents provided by the defence. The detective said she was also investigating whether Mr M had previously stated that the case involving his daughter had been withdrawn.
The defence challenged the material’s use in court. Sibiya’s lawyer, Estelle Killian SC, questioned why the recording was being played, particularly because Sibiya was not the subject of the conversation. The defence subsequently indicated it no longer wished to introduce the recording and had made it available to the state. The court heard that the investigation into the recording, including the circumstances surrounding an accompanying note, remained ongoing.
The matter now sits at the intersection of two accountability processes: a criminal bail proceeding in which the recording’s role remains contested, and a commission of inquiry whose mandate covers precisely the kind of alleged interference its own hearings have been referenced in. Whether Cabonge’s claims, if tested, point to any improper exercise of influence within the criminal justice system will depend on what his statement to the commission yields. The inquiry has indicated it will say nothing further until that work is done.