Mpumalanga taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni.

• Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni and Oupa “Bafana” Sindane have abandoned their urgent court application that sought to interdict the police from executing warrants of arrest against them.
• The NPA said the Magistrates Commission had begun a formal investigation into the complaint filed against Chief Magistrate Tuletu Tonjeni, who struck the case from the roll.
• Sibanyoni and his three co-accused face charges of extortion and money laundering.

Mpumalanga taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni and his co-accused, Oupa “Bafana” Sindane, have withdrawn their urgent application to interdict the police from executing warrants of arrest against them.

The arrest warrants stem from the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) decision to re-enrol the R2.2 million extortion and money laundering case against Sibanyoni and his co-accused.

The case was previously struck from the roll after the prosecutor failed to appear in court.

The withdrawal of the interdict comes days after the pair filed papers in the Mpumalanga High Court in Mbombela.

On Sunday, the NPA confirmed that Sibanyoni and Sindane had filed a notice of withdrawal of their urgent application, effectively ending their legal challenge.

NPA national spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said in a statement:

Sibanyoni and his co-accused appeared in the Delmas Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, after handing themselves over to the police. After being granted bail of R70 000 each, Sibanyoni and Sindane simultaneously filed the urgent application, which had now been dropped.

Sibanyoni, Sindane, Mvimbi Masilela and Philemon Msiza face charges of extortion and money laundering after allegedly forcing Mpumalanga mining entrepreneur Tengani Ntuli, the director of Tengane Mining, to pay more than R2.2 million in protection fees between 2022 and 2025.

Meanwhile, the NPA confirmed that the Magistrates Commission has begun investigating the formal complaint filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions in Mpumalanga against Chief Magistrate Tuletu Tonjeni.

Tonjeni was the presiding officer who struck the case off the roll in the Kwaggafontein Magistrate’s Court after prosecutor Mkhuseli Ntaba failed to appear in court for the accused’s bail application on 18 May.

Tonjeni also found Ntaba in contempt of court and issued a warrant for his arrest, a move the NPA said raised “serious institutional concerns relating to judicial decorum, procedural fairness and the proper administration of justice”.

Ntaba was subsequently placed on precautionary suspension while the NPA investigated the circumstances of his absence, which it later emerged were linked to safety concerns he had raised.

READ | Joe ‘Ferrari’ Sibanyoni and co-accused each granted R70 000 bail

The NPA added that it was still awaiting written reasons from Tonjeni as well as a hearing date for the application for leave to appeal that it filed on 22 May.

The leave to appeal challenges two controversial orders made by Tonjeni, Ntaba’s contempt of court conviction, and the warrant of arrest she issued against him.

The NPA is awaiting both Tonjeni’s written reasons for her ruling and a date for the appeal to be heard.

National Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Andy Mothibi used the development to reaffirm the NPA’s resolve.

“The NPA reaffirms its position of using every legally permissible avenue to resist any litigation that seeks to militate against the upholding of the rule of law and holding those accused of criminality accountable,” said Mothibi.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information.