South African Police Chief Faces Rape Charges in Court
A top South African police officer appeared in court Tuesday charged with rape and sexual grooming, adding to the spotlight on gender-based violence in a country with among of the world’s highest rates of violent crime.
Police reported that suspended deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya allegedly groomed a 16-year-old girl for sex between July and August 2026, and raped an 18-year-old adolescent at a hotel in the upscale Johannesburg district of Sandton.
His arrest comes amid mounting pressure on authorities over gender-based violence, following the discovery of nine women murdered east of Johannesburg in two months. Sibiya faces five accusations including rape, trafficking in persons, sponsoring the sexual grooming of a child and two acts of sexual grooming of a child, said a spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority, Kaizer Kganyago.
The matter was postponed to the 29th of September, Kganyago added. Official statistics says one in three women in South Africa experience physical or sexual assault in their lifetime and the government has designated gender-based violence a national tragedy.
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