News24 | Taxi boss Sindane’s second attempt to interdict Madlanga struck from court roll

Taxi boss Oupa Bafana “King of the Sky” Sindane’s (right) second bid to block his testimony at the Madlanga Commission has been struck from the court roll.

Iavan Pijoos/News24

• Taxi boss Oupa Bafana Sindane’s second bid to block his testimony has been struck from the court roll.
• The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria struck the matter on Tuesday morning, citing that no papers were before the court.
• Sindane’s counsel was also not present when the matter was struck.

Taxi boss Oupa Bafana “King of the Sky” Sindane has had another urgent application seeking to interdict the Madlanga Commission from compelling him to give evidence struck from the court roll.

This time, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria struck the application, citing that no court papers had been filed. Sindane also had no counsel present in court on Tuesday when the matter was called and subsequently struck.

This was Sindane’s second bite at the cherry, seeking to block the commission from enforcing a subpoena compelling him to appear before it and give evidence.

At the end of September, Sindane approached the same court on the day he was scheduled to appear before the commission. In addition to stopping his appearance, Sindane also wanted to block the commission from reading his WhatsApp messages into evidence.

READ | Taxi boss Sindane’s lawyers say his ‘sacred’ sangoma journey prevented Madlanga appearance

The application was struck with punitive costs.

His legal team had attempted to have his testimony postponed, arguing that Sindane suffered from uncontrollable hypertension, that he was in “spiritual seclusion” undergoing the journey of ukuthwasa towards becoming a sangoma, which was private, culturally significant, and could not simply be disrupted, and because of a pending High Court challenge to the commission’s subpoena. The commission dismissed this application for postponement.

In the latest urgent court application, Sindane sought to interdict the commission from compelling him to appear and give evidence, pending a challenge to the subpoena.

News24 previously reported that the WhatsApp evidence taxi boss Sindane tried and failed to suppress has revealed that he and taxi tycoon Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni allegedly hired a controversial attorney to represent two convicted taxi hitmen – and then failed to pay him the R250 000 they had promised.

The Madlanga Commission’s chief evidence leader, Matthew Chaskalson, said:

What these chats cumulatively suggest is that Mr Sibanyoni and Mr Sindane were involved in paying the legal expenses of Mr Gwabo Mahlangu, who was convicted of a taxi-related murder, and Mr Tshegofatso Richmond Makofane, who was also convicted of a taxi-related murder.

The chats further suggested that self-described “man of God” Sibanyoni and Sindane – who are both facing trial for allegedly extorting R2.2 million in “protection money” from a Mpumalanga contractor – “were essentially supporting the legal defences of these two apparent izinkabi [hitmen] involved in taxi killings”, he said.