- Tonya Khoury’s latest Scratch the Surface examines crime, corruption, gender-based violence and political developments in South Africa.
- The commentary discusses the arrest of Deputy Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and allegations involving rape, sexual grooming and trafficking.
- The Madlanga Commission and allegations involving taxi boss Joe Ferrari, organised crime and alleged extortion are central to the commentary.
- The piece examines South Africa’s gender-based violence crisis, police accountability and the backlog in processing forensic DNA evidence.
- International stories, the rand, the death penalty and Bafana Bafana’s AFCON campaign also feature in the weekly commentary. *
The biggest news of all? Sunshine has returned to Sodwana Bay, at least for the day! The weather can make us bleak and the news will make you knees weak. I’m Tonya Khoury this is this week’s scratch the surface and it’s brutal. Sorry, what can I do, guys. I read the news so you don’t have to.
Dora’s Tavern, mass killing, open fire with AK47s, eighteen dead, blood, turf wars and #ZamaZamas, foreigners apparently. That’s what we are told, I don’t deny it. I think the angle is too focused on nationality. If a set of South Africans walked into a tavern and pulled a Tarantino would we be sure to name their nationality? That’s all I’m saying. Brutal South Africa, just brutal!
The next two stories are so horrific, that I urge you to take a deep breath, really this report is not for the faint hearted.
Deputy Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya was arrested for rape, sexual grooming and trafficking. A whole police commissioner, a Lieutenant-General who was in charge of national crime detection, had WhatsApps on his phone from a father saying he was worried about his child because she had a crush on Shady Shadrack.
Explicit video
He sent Shadrack an explicit video of his 16-year-old daughter in a really unbecoming manner, how do I word it. Don’t make me unpack that further because my stomach churns. This whole story from start to finish is disgusting but have you examined the gall of it. The gall of it. What does that mean, why do we say the gall of it.
The phrase “the gall of it” (expressing disbelief or annoyance at someone’s extreme impudence or audacity) comes from the literal meaning of “gall” as bitter digestive bile. By the 1200s, gall meant an embittered or rancorous spirit.
Over time, this evolved in American slang (around 1882) to describe someone so brazen, bitter, or shameless that they possessed an overwhelming, offensive “boldness” or “impudence”. Nice, Brutal,
Anyway, I digress, but I’m sure we all learnt something.
So Shady Shadrack interacts with this child and asks for more videos and she indulges him, why, well that’s the question, but if her father is pimping her out, I daren’t imagine. This happened less than two months ago. He was at the commission a wee while ago and the gall of it, he’s seen we can see his WhatsSpps, so does that mean he’s been doing this all along and trusted the father to help traffic children?
This was not a once off. The gall of it.
At The Grand
In the UK they have Scotland Yard, the headquarters of all police work, well we too have a headquarters for all our top cops. It’s called #TheGrand, filled with exotic dancers and all other such temptations. Our cops have been hanging out there for years, sure beats #ScotlandYard, the commute alone is unbearable and the receptionist is overdressed.
We’re at the Grand with Shad and one of his chinas,. They have two eighteen year olds with them, scantily clad and having dinner… at The Grand … plied with booze the one girl vomits, he gives her more alcohol until both girls are dragged upstairs. Shadrack exits his room and announces that that was very good, she was a virgin.
Brutal, just brutal. This SOB needs hanging, in the middle of Pretoria town centre. Set him alight, hang him high, feed him to the vultures. This is this week’s top story, over 135k mentions with an engagement topping a million. Almost all of it negative. We are angry keyboard warriors. #BrutalSA
Predator status
Here’s another thing that is shady, the timing, you see this disgusting toad was exposed at the Madlanga Commission for fraud, racketeering and corruption. No wonder he is one of our top cops. South Africa sets a brutal bar.
The announcement of his predator status was after Ferrari said he knew Sibiya was “reporting to the Farm” a reference to late taxi boss and alleged Big Five cartel leader ‘Mswazi’. It’s all orchestrated if you remove the emotion, hey?
Shad the Drac ended his testimony with a cryptic message: “See me when I see you,” and quoted from the Bible, saying he had been “reviled.”
All of this was directed at Chaskalson. Put that Advocate in charge. He’s brilliant isn’t he? And with all his going on is it any wonder, whatsoever, that we pick up bodies on the side of the road in an area that covers 23 or more suburbs and has a population of almost 5 million people. #Ekurhuleni
Tsek, man
We are fed narratives about a foreigner who is a serial killer and he alone is responsible for all the gender-based violence in one region. Tsek, man. Our President in 2025 told us gender-based violence had been declared a national disaster, this was during the G20 summit. If you remember we were all cloaked in purple, the colour of dried blood, the colour of bruises, the colour they painted across our forgotten women.
What happened after that? Dololo, obviously. Well not dololo, as 111 women were raped every single day since. Do you want to know what his solution is now?
We had a family meeting and Cupcake said they’re going to fix the streetlights. I’m not even kidding you, this is his great plan better lit walkways and wait, are you ready for it, wait… a commission of enquiry. South Africa’s solution to everything. #BrutalSA
The real reason rapists are never convicted is twofold: first the police and second the police. One because a victim will be turned around at the door of a police department being asked ‘Are you Sure’.
This was the title of a piece I wrote in 2022 when one of our own went through gender-based violence: it was her ex-husband smashing his grandmother to the floor. You see that most instances, the perps are known to the victims, but they are offered a hot cup of tea and an exit.
DNA backlog
If you make it to the statement, well then there’s all the corruption in between and then there’s the backlog of the DNA. Three hundred thousand cases behind with an average of 3 to 7 days to process a single sample, if you just did one a day it would take 6 000 years, if you managed to get 500 done a day it would take two years and then you’d have another two years worth of backlog.
See who’s responsible for the lack of justice? The police, not doing their jobs, the police conveniently loosing dockets, the police’s DNA backlog and finally, the police who sit at the Grand and chuck booze down kid’s throats and then claim victory on raping a virgin.
May you only ever see hell, the one who turned her away at the door, the one who plied her with alcohol, the one who raped her, the one who killed her, the one who shared videos of her. #BrutalSouthAfrica
Every week I threaten you with a political study, and every week, Madlanga steals the slot. This week we saw Joe ‘Ferrari’ Taxi kingpin who dislikes being called the “new sheriff in town” but prefers to be called “President”, the gall of it!
Tenders and extortion
But then the evidence unfolded and the next thing I was watching this oke, with Ramaphosa and Mantashe in the same room. Ferrari stood up and said he’s extorting 30% of a tender or any deal that happens in his kingdom, and the President shook his hand. Unreal. Oh it gets worse and I must say Chaskalson is outstanding and very very brave.
He demanded a 30% stake in Putco, said it was gazetted for the people of KwaNdebele, and warned that if Putco didn’t comply, “we will fight for ourselves.” He said that if you see buses on fire, ‘that is us’, if you see roads blocked ‘that is us’.
And he watched the replaying of a video of such a blockade and of burning busses and this oke did not flinch. Brutal. A man threatens a whole Putco business in front of the President on camera with #PhuzaFace Gwede Mantashe. They just stood there and nobody flinched. Who is the president eintlek? Brutal.
Comic relief comes from the DA this time. They have a brilliant campaign manager, but he thinks he’s a doctor. He’s not but he turns up in scrubs and a stethoscope to boot. The DA won’t fire him, because they say he’s too good. Is he though, I mean have you seen the response to your campaigning. Genocide is a big word #NeverZille
Big week for Afrikaners
Then it’s been a big week for the Afrikaners. Mbeki released a paper blaming apartheid for the Zuma trajectory. Just wow. And then in Washington two dominees put up an exhibition of 3000 crosses one with Eugene Terreblanche’s name on it. I can’t and I refuse, so I’m moving on. Brutal
They say the Rand is at its weakest. It’s R16 to the dollar and yet when it was R20 rand to the dollar they said the rand was at its weakest. Go figure, I like these current numbers though!
Lethal injection
Over the waves Christa Pike, not a very nice lass, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in Tennessee. It turns out two lethal jabs just sent her off to Lalaland and she had the best night’s sleep in years. One minute you’re in the chamber trying to kill the woman because it’s your job and then you take her to the hospital to save her life. Now what? What happens now. Anyone? Brutal
That’s all I can take, I didn’t talk about the pilot who stabbed his colleague and all hell broke loose as the plane plummet to the ground and some really brave men saved hundreds of lives. A brutal report, you’ll all agree so we end as we started with murder. A sperm whale sunk a yacht in the South Pacific, did it want to eat the rich?
Here back at home, we have some sporting cheer that is not the Springboks, Bafana Bafana hammered Eritrea 5–0 in AFCON. And with that I’ll tell you that next week I’m traveling but you’ll see that election study, I promise you that.
Stay loose, pray for my Goose.
I’m Tonya Khoury and thank you for scratching the surface with me and Acumen Media.
