Recording Links Sibiya To Thobejane Murder Plot — Limpopo High Court Hearing Halted

The Polokwane courtroom was eerily still on Wednesday morning as prosecutors played what they said was an audio recording of a high-ranking official ordering assassins to target Warrant Officer Tebogo Thobejane. Eyewitnesses said they could feel the defence team’s nerves jangling at that moment. In what State Advocate Nthabi Molepo deemed the most damaging piece of evidence presented during the months of hearings, the Limpopo High Court—which was crowded with media and uniformed SAPS members—heard the case. While the tape crackled over the chamber’s speakers, all eyes in the gallery were on Lieutenant General Nneke Sibiya, a former Limpopo police commissioner.

According to what the state informed the court, the recording that was intercepted purports to show a voice—supposedly Sibiya’s—issuing orders to kill Thobejane before the warrant officer passed away in 2021. One witness testified, “He sent people to kill Tebogo,” which was transcribed and entered into the record by the investigators. The audio was created within a 48-hour window before Thobejane was shot outside his Seshego house in March of that year, according to digital forensic experts, which Advocate Molepo corroborated. Sibiya, who was accompanied by his legal team, denied participation via his lawyers.

According to Dali Mpofu, the defence attorney, the tape is still inadmissible due to integrity-compromising holes in its chain of custody. Sibiya was remanded to Kgoshi Mampuru II Correctional Facility, and the hearings were deferred by Presiding Judge Raulinga Moshoeshoe so that the parties may submit more arguments about the authenticity controversy. By the time this story was published, national spokespersons for the South African Police Service (SAPS) had not provided an official response.

Colleagues openly claimed that Thobejane had information that implicated top officials in criminal networks operating throughout Limpopo, drawing attention to his case inside the province. In 2022, after investigators first categorised the incident as an ill-fated robbery, his wife Dimakatso filed a legal action against the Department of Police. Before the Hawks took over, community policing forums in Seshego had been demanding a specialised task force for fourteen months.

On Wednesday, as the recording neared its end, Dimakatso Thobejane clutched a folded program in her hands and gazed at the wooden barrier that separated the public and counsel rooms. Her fingers were pale, her jaw was clenched, and she resisted the need to cry in front of an unfamiliar audience.

If there was more than one general in the chain of command, whose orders would be revealed next? Judge Moshoeshoe has set the next hearing for 18 August, but this essential issue persists and refuses to go away.

https://x.com/News24/status/2110053537300275446

Theeconomictimes feedback-opera-news-app@opera.com