Johannesburg – A police investigation has uncovered a violent power struggle within Gauteng's taxi industry, revealing that the attempted assassination of Joe "Ferrari" Sibanyoni was allegedly orchestrated by Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala and linked to the "Big Five" cartel – a criminal network with alleged reach across South Africa.
While the case is yet to be heard in court, the Sunday Times can exclusively reveal that Matlala's alleged attempt on Sibanyoni's life in August 2022 was part of a deadly succession battle within the cartel.
Last November, a police investigator informed the Madlanga commission that the cartel is a Gauteng-based criminal network with alleged links to politicians and law enforcement. The group is purportedly involved in drug trafficking, tender fraud, kidnappings, extortion, contract killings, and cross-border vehicle hijackings.
Several witnesses have told the commission that other members of the alleged cartel include the late taxi boss Jotham "Mswazi" Msibi, Sibanyoni, a shadowy businessman known as Steve Motsumi, Matlala, and Katiso "KT" Molefe.
Describing Msibi, a police witness told the commission that the taxi overlord, who died in hospital in 2024 after a short illness, was the president of "The Firm", an alleged umbrella organisation for the Big Five cartel.
At the heart of the alleged murder plot lies Sibanyoni's dramatic falling out with Msibi, who was his former mentor and the influential taxi "godfather" touted as the architect of the modern South African taxi industry.
According to Sibanyoni's police statement, tensions arose when Msibi reneged on a longstanding verbal agreement to vacate the presidency of the South African Local and Long Distance Taxi and Bus Organisation (SALLDTBO) and make way for him. His refusal allegedly triggered the campaign to remove him violently.
Sibanyoni's statement offers a rare glimpse into the succession politics that shape the taxi industry, exposing how leadership contests in powerful organisations such as SALLDTBO often spill over into bloodshed.
Sibanyoni, who is now president of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), revealed in his statement that there had been previous attempts on his life, which he also blamed on his rival, Msibi.
"He became aware that I was avoiding him and confronted me about it… I also reminded him that he sent people to kill me back in 2007. I was shot and injured, and I survived. He became angry and told me to take my taxis out of the rank," Sibanyoni said in his statement to the police.
A police investigation has revealed how Matlala's co-accused allegedly carried out the audacious assassination attempt on Sibanyoni on the night of August 10 2022 outside the Centurion Golf Estate.
Sibanyoni, who was shot twice in the stomach, told the police he had worked with Msibi since 1997, and when Msibi became president of the SALLDTBO, he became his second-in-command. They had an agreement that Msibi would retire when he turned 60, but he changed his mind in 2019 when he was approaching retirement age.
"I did not argue with him on that [Msibi not vacating his position] since it was a verbal agreement from the onset. But I could tell that he was up to something not good… At this time he started recalling duties that were ordinarily mine as his second-in-charge. In about the same period, Covid-19 came about. This gave me a chance to distance myself from Mswazi. By now I was already aware that my life could be in danger."
Sibanyoni told the police that after this falling out, Msibi began arming himself by securing the protection services of Cat Security Services, owned by Matlala.
"Mswazi started beefing up his security, surrounding himself with gunmen, so-called izinkabi," Sibanyoni said.
Among the people Msibi sourced were Matlala and Katiso Molefe. In 2021 and 2022 Katiso Molefe moved to manage his operations (drugs) full-time from a farm owned by Mswazi in Hammanskraal, Pretoria, he said.
"Vusi Matlala also became a regular on this farm. Mswazi started grooming Vusi Matlala, telling him that his only threat was me, and that if he killed me he would take after him in terms of being a leader of the taxi business that Mswazi was a boss of."
The Sunday Times has established that the police investigation uncovered how Matlala's co-accused in the attempted murder of Sibanyoni, Musa Kekana and Danny Tiego Floyd Mabusela tracked and tailed Sibanyoni on the night of August 10 2022.
Sibanyoni, who had just bought himself a red Ferrari, was celebrating with his friends over dinner at the upmarket Ukko restaurant in the Nicolway shopping centre in Bryanston when Mabusela and Kekana arrived from the direction of Midrand.
The police, by triangulating the cellphones of Mabusela and Kekana, managed to track down their movements from the restaurant to Centurion Golf Estate, where Sibanyoni lives.
The two gunmen – allegedly Mabusela and Kekana, who are also co-accused in the murder of musician DJ Sumbody – converged at Nicolway in the early evening and left the area at around 10.25pm when Sibanyoni left the Ukko restaurant. They proceeded to the N1 to Centurion.
Mabusela is alleged to have been driving a white BMW 335i, which he had fitted with fake number plates, in pursuit of Sibanyoni, who was driving a Ferrari accompanied by another driver in a VW Golf 7.
Their movements were caught on toll gantry cameras on the N1. On arrival at the estate, Sibanyoni and two of his friends stood outside chatting.
"A white BMW 3 series arrived and drove through the car park before pulling up in front of the victims [Sibanyoni and friends] and opening fire on them. The shooting appears to have come from the front window of the vehicle," police said in their investigation.
The shooting was captured on the estate’s CCTV footage, which was handed over to the police. The timestamp showed the shooting happened at 10.48pm and that Sibanyoni’s life was saved by the estate’s security guards, who fired back at the gunmen.
According to ballistics experts, the security guards hit the BMW at least six times before it sped off to the N1 South highway and later disappeared in the upmarket Waterfall suburb.
The Sunday Times understands that the police have obtained a statement from Matlala’s former girlfriend, Ledile Papo. She told them she had received a call from him that night, asking if a vehicle could be parked in her garage.
"He asked me if I was home, and I told him that I was not. He then said he wanted to park a car at my place. Since he usually comes and parks his cars, I gave him the go-ahead."
Papo further told the police that her domestic worker had said two "African males" had arrived that night and parked a white BMW inside the garage.
On her return from Limpopo, she saw the white BMW, which she assumed was one of Matlala’s vehicles, Papo told the police. It was later picked up by an "African male".
Matlala; his wife Tsakane Matlala; Kekana; Mabusela; and Mabusela’s daughter Zandile Nthabiseng Nzama, face 25 charges, including 11 counts of attempted murder, arising from three separate shooting incidents between August 2022 and January 2024.
The state further alleges that the accused were involved in orchestrating a shooting, in laundering money linked to the alleged plot, and in utilising a fraudulent invoice to conceal the source of the funds and mislead the court.
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