A senior public prosecutor in KwaZulu-Natal who allegedly pretended to be a man after being arrested clocking 196km/h in an apparent drunken state has never been prosecuted.
Arrested in March 2013, the case against Empangeni chief prosecutor Gloria Philile Sibeko was quietly withdrawn from the court roll at the Verulam Magistrate's Court in 2014.
Court documents do not say why the case was withdrawn by the prosecution, but days after her arrest on March 21, 2013, KwaZulu-Natal Transport spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane had told The Mercury: "While she must still be proven guilty, it is extremely disappointing for a person in her position to be arrested for these crimes. She is meant to lead by example as a custodian of the law. But this arrest shows that no one is above the law."
The problem is that the case was never prosecuted and, in fact, on June 8, 2014 all charges were withdrawn by the prosecution without the matter ever having gone to trial.
The events of that night have raised eyebrows within the ranks of the National Prosecuting Authority, the police in Tongaat, as well as members of the KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI). Several sources in the police, the NPA and RTI have recounted various versions of what happened that night.
There are a few small variations in these versions, but one point on which there was no variation was that the RTI officers, as well as the members of SAPS, initially believed they had pulled over a man.
The allegation is that Sibeko, who is responsible for prosecution services in northern KwaZulu-Natal, went flying through a speed trap near Ballito on the N2 in her BMW sedan in the direction of Durban. She failed to stop.
One of the RTI officers gave chase and managed to stop her near the off-ramp for King Shaka International Airport.
The officer, noticing a glass in her car, asked her if she had been drinking. She allegedly denied that she had been. The traffic officer took her in his car back to where the trap was and also asked her to take a breathalyser test.
Asked why she was speeding, she reportedly told officers that she had been fighting with her wife and was going through a divorce. She further told them her name was Geoff Phillip Sibeko.
She was then taken for a blood test at the Tongaat Clinic and then to the Tongaat police station.
In fact, so convinced were police that they were dealing with a man, that according to one version, Sibeko was thrown into the men's cell – this could, however, not be verified.
Sibeko was then granted police bail and at that stage, police still believed they were dealing with a man, because on the J398 form for police bail the officer, a Captain Naidoo, had written her name as "Geff Philip Sibeco".
According to that form (serial number A879030), in which Captain Naidoo consulted with a Detective Warrant Officer R Govender, the charges listed on the J398 were exceeding the speed limit and driving while under the influence of alcohol.
It is not clear exactly when police became suspicious and at what stage they realised that Geoff was not Geoff, but rather Gloria Sibeko.
According to the court records, Sibeko faced a charge of driving under the influence of liquor, reckless and negligent driving, speeding and defeating the administration of justice because she "furnish (sic) false names to the traffic officials and or police officials knowing it/them to be false, incorrect or misleading or not believing them to be correct".
But while all this information could be gleaned from the court records and from interviews with various people, what could not be obtained was the reason for state advocate Naveen Sewpersat withdrawing the charges in June 2014.
All that the court records show is that the case was postponed to allow Sibeko, who was represented by advocate Willie Lombard, to make representations to Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Moipone Noko. In a subsequent appearance before magistrate KG Chetty, Sewpersat withdrew the charges.
Sibeko could not be reached for comment, with all enquiries to her office being referred to the NPA.
Two sources told the African News Agency that one of the issues faced by the prosecution was that the blood samples had apparently been tampered with.
It is understood that two people from the NPA's national office in Pretoria spoke with police and RTI officials last year and indicated that the charge related to driving under the influence would have to be withdrawn if charges were reinstated. This could not be confirmed.
A series of questions put to the NPA went unanswered. The only response to the questions was a brief statement from Noko, which read: "The matter is being attended to and there is a team of two prosecutors that have been assigned to deal with the matter and are dealing with it."
According to police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele, the case was still open.
RTI spokesperson Zinhle Mngomezulu also said that as far as she was aware the case was still open.
Neither was aware the matter had in fact been withdrawn, until told otherwise.
The initial investigating officer, Warrant Officer Chonillal, died in October 2016 from a heart attack and the case has been passed on to another investigating officer, Warrant Officer SG Naidoo.
Despite the charges, Sibeko continues to work as the chief prosecutor based in Empangeni, responsible for the NPA's prosecutions in that part of the country.
Earlier this month, national Transport Minister Dipuo Peters announced that 1 714 fatalities were recorded over the festive period, which was a five percent increase on the previous period. When she launched the 2016 festive season road safety campaign in Gauteng, she warned there would be zero tolerance for offenders.
Ironically, the first person stopped at the road block held for that campaign launch was intoxicated.
"I was very embarrassed this morning because the first person we stopped was a drunk woman," she was quoted as saying by Eyewitness News.
She further told the radio station that: "If we find you drunk, speeding, with an unroadworthy vehicle, we will terminate your licence and make sure you are fined."