Former Minister of Police · former National Commissioner of the SAPS · KwaZulu-Natal · Pretoria
Named in evidence · not yet heard
The man who held the police portfolio through almost all of the conduct this commission is examining, and who has not yet answered for any of it from the stand. Bheki Cele was National Commissioner of the South African Police Service from 2009 until his suspension in 2011, and Minister of Police from May 2019 until June 2024. Witness after witness has put his name into this record without him in the room. Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala told the commission that Cele arranged his 15 April 2025 meeting with KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at Umhlanga, and that Cele told him to keep up his dealings with Oupa 'Brown' Mogotsi in order to investigate corruption. Taxi operator Madoda 'Joe Ferrari' Sibanyoni testified that he wrote to Cele as police minister warning that officers were inside a cartel killing taxi bosses, and asked for an inquiry that he says was refused. Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC asked the former head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption why her directorate never pursued allegations that Crime Intelligence funds were diverted to Cele, and said that overlooked in that way it 'speaks to selective investigations and prosecutions'. An affidavit before the commission alleges that Major-General Feroz Khan drafted parliamentary questions about Cele for the Economic Freedom Fighters to ask. Parliament's ad hoc committee heard Matlala's claim that he paid Cele R500,000 in two instalments in 2025, one of them described as cash in a Woolworths shopping bag. And on 3 October 2026 the Sunday Times reported that a 370-page forensic report by the SAPS's own internal audit and risk and integrity management divisions, finalised in April 2026, recommends that Cele be criminally prosecuted over alleged gratification from Matlala-linked companies on the R360 million Medicare24 contract. Cele denies the allegations: 'If they say I got money, they must show me bank receipts which show that I received the money.' Nothing on this page is a finding. He has not testified before this commission, he has not been charged on the forensic report or on any of the allegations recorded here, every claim is untested, and he is presumed innocent.
This profile summarises testimony and evidence given on the public record before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. It restates allegations as presented at the hearings and is not a finding of guilt, liability, or wrongdoing by any person.
Awaiting appearanceNo portrait on the public record yet
Their role
What the record says
A forensic report recommends his prosecution over the Medicare24 contract
Per the Sunday Times of 3 October 2026 and Sowetan of 4 October, a 370-page joint forensic report by the SAPS's internal audit and its risk and integrity management divisions, finalised in April 2026, recommends that Cele be criminally prosecuted for allegedly receiving unlawful gratification from companies linked to Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala: cash said to run to hundreds of thousands of rands, and stays in a penthouse at The Capital Menlyn Maine in Pretoria. The investigators describe a 'specific pattern' of large cash withdrawals from Medicare24 Tshwane District and CAT Protection and Security around his meetings with Matlala. The report also recommends prosecuting Matlala, bid committee members Captain Brian Cartwright and Brigadier Petunia Lenono, and names Lieutenant-General Molefe Fani. It is an internal report and a recommendation: nobody has been charged on it and the prosecuting authority has not said what it will do. Cele's answer is that they must produce bank receipts, and of the penthouse, 'when has it been a crime to sleep there?' Untested; all named are presumed innocent.
The R500,000 Matlala told Parliament he paid him
Matlala told Parliament's ad hoc committee that he paid Cele R500,000 in two instalments in 2025, one of them reported as R300,000 handed over in a Woolworths shopping bag. That evidence was given to a parliamentary committee rather than to this commission, and Cele denies receiving any money. Untested; both presumed innocent.
The Umhlanga meeting Matlala says he arranged
On Day 167, 26 August 2026, Matlala told this commission that his 15 April 2025 meeting with KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi at Umhlanga was arranged by Cele, and that what he wanted from it was an introduction to the police human resources head over his company's non-performance problems on the Medicare24 contract. Cele has not answered that account before this commission. Untested; both presumed innocent.
The instruction Matlala says he was given about Brown Mogotsi
Matlala told the commission that Cele had told him to keep his relationship with the North West businessman Oupa 'Brown' Mogotsi going in order to investigate corruption, in the same evidence in which he said of Mogotsi, 'I actually hate him. He caused a lot of problems for me.' It is an account that places a former minister in a private citizen's dealings with a man later arrested for defeating the ends of justice. Cele has not answered it before this commission. Untested; all presumed innocent.
The inquiry a taxi operator says he asked for and did not get
Testifying on Day 169, 28 August 2026, taxi operator Madoda 'Joe Ferrari' Sibanyoni said he had taken the cartel allegation to the state long before this commission existed: per Eyewitness News he wrote to Cele as police minister warning that the killings of taxi operators across Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were being orchestrated by a network with roots inside the SAPS, asked for an urgent audience and an inquiry, and was refused. It is one man's account of his own letter and Cele has not answered it here. Untested; both presumed innocent.
The diversion allegation IDAC is said never to have pursued
On Day 149, 28 July 2026, Commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC asked Advocate Andrea Johnson, testifying for the first time as the former head of the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, why the directorate never pursued allegations that Crime Intelligence funds were diverted to Cele, a matter she put squarely within its mandate. Johnson said she had never been briefed on it; Baloyi observed that 'on the extreme end, it speaks to selective investigations and prosecutions if this was overlooked'. The underlying allegation is untested and has produced no charge. All named are presumed innocent.
The parliamentary questions an affidavit says were written for the EFF to ask about him
An affidavit before the commission alleges that Major-General Feroz Khan sent tobacco executive Mohamed Sayed a set of questions about Cele for the Economic Freedom Fighters to put in Parliament, and that Sayed forwarded them to Julius Malema. Cele is the subject of that allegation rather than its author. Untested; all named are presumed innocent.
“If they say I got money, they must show me bank receipts which show that I received the money.”
Bheki Cele to the Sunday Times, 3 October 2026, answering a SAPS forensic report that recommends his prosecution over alleged gratification from companies linked to Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala. Nobody has been charged on the report; the allegations are untested and he is presumed innocent.