Inside Joe Ferrari’s alleged R2.2m extortion network

As taxi boss Joe ‘Ferrari’ Sibanyoni appeared in court this week on allegations of extortion amounting to R2.2m, the Sunday Times can reveal he allegedly extor­ted money from a prom­in­ent South African busi­ness leader.

The businessman, with interests in hous­ing devel­op­ment, social hous­ing and min­ing, is known to the Sunday Times but has not been men­tioned in court.

His com­pany is heav­ily engaged in the extrac­tion and explor­a­tion sec­tors, and bids for pub­lic works, infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment and muni­cipal tenders.

The enter­prise runs con­trolled oper­a­tions — such as planned blast­ing activ­it­ies — in the Them­bisile Hani local muni­cip­al­ity near Kwag­ga­fon­tein and Mid­del­burg in Mpumalanga. It holds vari­ous man­u­fac­tur­ing and pet­ro­leum-related reg­u­lat­ory approvals issued by the depart­ment of min­eral resources and energy.

An insider told the Sunday Times that the extor­tion involved a pro­tec­tion fee for the con­struc­tion of Moloto Road (R573) in which Sibanyoni allegedly deman­ded a cut from the project.

Sibanyoni’s advoc­ate, former national dir­ector of pub­lic pro­sec­u­tions Shaun Abra­hams, argued in court that his cli­ent had a busi­ness rela­tion­ship with the com­plain­ant, but an insider told the Sunday Times that no such rela­tion­ship exis­ted.

Read the full story here.