Taxi boss Joe Sibanyoni’s marathon testimony at the Madlanga Commission ended in defiance on Wednesday, with the Mpumalanga strongman denying he orchestrated a campaign of intimidation, blockades and arson to force bus giant Putco to hand over a 30% stake.
On Wednesday, the Madlanga Commission’s cross-examination of Sibanyoni zeroed in on his 2024 meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, a meeting captured on video and photograph alongside Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
In the footage shown to the Commission, Sibanyoni is heard pleading with the President for help to break into bus company Putco’s operations.
“Please assist us. When you find someone wanting to interfere with the Putco business, you must throw it, assist us. Don’t put the wrong thing. Assist us as, how do we get into this space?” he said.
Sibanyoni told the Commission he was lobbying for subcontracts for two entities, but refused to name the second entity.
He denied he had threatened to interfere with Putco if his demands were not met, instead offering a tortured explanation of the word interfere.
“If I am engaging with you, it’s one and the same thing when I interfere with you. Interfere, that’s when I’m engaging you. Interfering into your mind, into your matters, it’s me engaging you about those matters,” he said.
Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson was not buying it.
The Commission has been told that Sibanyoni was demanding a 30% local content stake in Putco — a demand the company viewed as extortion.
What followed, according to evidence before the Commission, was a sustained campaign of sabotage.
Chaskalson revealed that between October 2024 and January 2025 alone, Putco reported more than 350 incidents where its buses were stopped and forced to turn back by taxi operators in Mpumalanga. A video played in the hearing showed taxi drivers blocking a Putco bus in the middle of the road.
“We’ve been told by Putco that between October 2024 and January 2025, there were more than 350 incidents of this nature where their buses had to turn around because taxis blocked their path. Are you aware of the scale of that?” Chaskalson asked.
Sibanyoni’s answer was blunt: “No, I’m not aware.”
He denied his association was behind the blockades — despite confidential police reports linking his network to the incidents, which evidence leaders said they will continue to present.
The timeline laid out on his final day was damning.
In 2023, Sibanyoni met with Putco management to demand a stake. In 2024, he escalated the matter to the Presidency, meeting Ramaphosa and Mantashe. In early 2025, Putco buses were torched in a coordinated arson attack.
Just one month after the buses were burnt, Taxi-Choice — the commercial arm of the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) — made an offer to buy Putco outright.
Putco rejected the offer, describing the timing as “disturbingly calculated.”
Chaskalson put it directly to Sibanyoni that the dots joined into one clear picture — pressure, sabotage, arson, then a takeover bid.
“We seem to point to a single process where Putco is being placed under pressure to sell and to sell to Taxi Choice. What’s your response to that?” he asked.
“I differ. I differ 100% with your findings. I’ve answered step-by-step each and every question that leads up to the end of this letter,” Sibanyoni shot back.
He has now formally denied any involvement in the 2025 torching of Putco buses and denied that his demand for a 30% stake constituted extortion.
