New details from police investigations now paint a chilling, minute-by-minute picture of the night Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni was nearly killed outside Centurion Golf Estate in August 2022. The timeline shows a careful, co‑ordinated ambush, and highlights sophisticated methods allegedly employed by those charged in the case.
Sibanyoni had been at the upmarket Ukko restaurant in Bryanston on 10 August 2022, celebrating with friends and enjoying the kind of public visibility that comes with being a high‑profile taxi boss. He had recently bought a red Ferrari — a conspicuous symbol of wealth — and was pictured leaving the restaurant just after 10pm.
Police say two men, later identified as Musa Kekana and Danny Mabusela, arrived at the shopping centre from Midrand earlier that evening. Investigators triangulated their cellphone locations and followed their path on toll gantry cameras along the N1 towards Centurion. Mabusela allegedly drove a white BMW 335i fitted with false number plates to mask his movements.
The CCTV at Centurion Golf Estate captured what followed. At 22:48, a white BMW pulled into the estate car park and drew up near Sibanyoni and two friends standing outside. Gunmen opened fire from the front window, striking Sibanyoni twice in the stomach. The attackers fled, but not before being hit by return fire from estate security.
Ballistics evidence shows the estate guards struck the BMW at least six times, slowing it enough for it to exit onto the N1 south and vanish into the Waterfall area. The initial surveillance trail is important to the case — police used electronic and physical evidence to map the alleged route and to link the car to addresses and contacts.
A statement by Ledile Papo, Matlala’s former girlfriend, added a domestic detail to the case. She told police she had received a call from Matlala the night of the shooting asking if a vehicle could be parked in her garage. Her domestic worker later saw two “African males” who had parked a white BMW there. Papo said she later saw the BMW and assumed it belonged to Matlala. That vehicle was later collected by an “African male,” she told investigators.
Investigators say the BMW used in the attack was among several cars that moved between properties allegedly used by cartel members, a pattern that, if proven, would show the logistical network behind the ambush. The state alleges financial transactions and false invoices were used to launder money linked to the plots. Those financial links will be central in court.
Sibanyoni’s own police statement offers insight into motive. He described a bitter falling out with Jotham “Mswazi” Msibi, a taxi boss he had once considered a mentor. That dispute, Sibanyoni said, had produced earlier attempts on his life, including a shooting in 2007. “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 told the police.
Police contend the Ukko-to‑Centurion sequence was no spontaneous act of violence. Rather, it was a planned ambush with surveillance, false plates, decoy routes and a hideout at a nearby garage. The case also underlines how dangerous visibility can be for high-profile figures who live amid criminal rivalries: public outings, luxury purchases and known addresses create exploitable patterns.
The successful intervention by the estate guards — who returned fire and prevented the attackers from finishing the job — may have saved Sibanyoni’s life. But it also exposed vulnerabilities in personal and private security for public figures. Investigators now say the attack’s planning speaks to the Big Five’s alleged ability to move people and weapons across Gauteng with relative ease.
The prosecution will depend on hard evidence: CCTV, phone triangulation, toll-camera timestamps, ballistics and witness testimony. If those pieces hold, they could help prosecutors show how the attack was engineered and who supplied the cars, guns and logistics. For a society grappling with organised crime, the case is a rare window into how assassins allegedly operate in wealthy suburbs and how criminal networks exploit both legal businesses and private properties to launch attacks.
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