Stuart James Scharnick, a businessman and associate of suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, has been arrested after a journalist covering the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry laid intimidation charges against him.
Scharnick allegedly confronted the journalist at the Commission’s hearings after the journalist recorded him during a tea break.
BREAKING NEWS | Stuart James Scharnick, a businessman and associate of suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, has been arrested for allegedly intimidating a Sowetan journalist. For more visit https://t.co/Jm2zGCk5RU pic.twitter.com/PaOhwPzqa2
— SABC News (@SABCNews) August 20, 2026
Sowetan journalist Herman Moloi tells SABC News that Scharnick confronted him during the tea adjournment at the Commission, while he was recording a video of him and allegedly threatened him, prompting Moloi to open an intimidation case.
“And then he said even yesterday: ‘You took videos of me and posted on social media’. And I’m like yesterday I didn’t take any video of you and can you please show me that video you say I took yesterday and then he’s like: ‘I don’t have my phone with me now’. And his tone was very threatening because he was even pointing fingers at me, telling me that if I want to talk like that I must come outside so we don’t know what would have happened outside but his tone was very threatening that’s why I decided to open a criminal case.”
WATCH | Sowetan journalist Herman Moloi details why he laid a charge of intimidation against Stuart Scharnick after an alleged incident on the sidelines of the Madlanga Commission. pic.twitter.com/INkcM0FYbb
— SABC News (@SABCNews) August 20, 2026
