By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former minister of police Bheki Cele testified on Friday, 24 October 2025, at Parliament’s ad hoc committee that is investigating accusations that a drug trafficking cartel has infiltrated the country’s law enforcement and politics.
It is the first time Cele has officially and publicly spoken out about the accusations that form the core of what has developed into an unprecedented policing scandal.
The inquiry is also probing political interference in the workings of the SAPS. Cele was the Minister of Police from February 2018 to 17 June 2024, preceding the tenure of suspended Minister Senzo Mchunu.
During Friday’s proceedings, Cele touched on various other cases and issues.
He testified about a high-profile matter he first spoke about during the previous evening (on Thursday).
This was about Anele “Nellie” Tembe. Her fiancé was rapper Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA.
Tembe died after apparently falling from the 10th floor of a Cape Town hotel in 2021. About two years later, Forbes was murdered in a shooting in Durban.
The National Prosecuting Authority ultimately decided not to proceed with a prosecution into what happened to Tembe – suspicions did the rounds that Forbes may have pushed her from their hotel room.
Testifying on Thursday evening, Cele said police officers in the Western Cape who investigated what had happened to Tembe believed she was murdered.
He stuck with this on Friday when again referencing the case, saying police had been frustrated, and believed someone had been protected by the prosecution.
Cele also told parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into police corruption that, if he had been in office during the Marikana massacre, in which 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead by police in 2012, the tragedy “would never have happened”.
“If I was there, there would have been no Marikana,” said Cele, who was police commissioner from 2009 until he was fired by then president Jacob Zuma in late 2011. He was succeeded by Riah Phiyega.
Cele, who served as police minister from 2018 to 2024, said the focus on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s role in the tragedy was misplaced. Ramaphosa, who was then an ANC national executive committee member and non-executive director at Lonmin, which owned the Marikana mine at the time, had emailed police officials calling for “concomitant action” against striking workers.
Attention should be on the actions of then police minister Nathi Mthethwa and police commissioner Phiyega, Cele argued.
He said Phiyega had “a good night’s” sleep before the Marikana massacre when police generals went to brief her about the operation. He said she had diverged from the plan and took instructions from politicians who were not part of the police.
“She was given a way out and opted not to ride the bus but went under it. She threw herself under the bus, “Cele said.
He thought Phiyega’s appointment as police commissioner in 2012 was a deliberate attempt to weaken the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Phiyega, who was the first woman to hold the post, was suspended in October 2015 by Zuma following a recommendation from the Farlam commission of inquiry into the 2012 tragedy.
Cele told Economic Freedom Fighters MP Leigh-Ann Mathys on Friday that, during Phiyega’s tenure, operational structures were destroyed to facilitate looting.
“Well, the opinion is that, if I know I want to steal but I know there is a bulldog, I will take the teeth out of the bulldog so that I do things properly. Maybe someone took the teeth out to do things properly? Who did that? Those that were leading? Who was leading at the time? Zuma was president. So, it was under the Zuma administration.”
Cele also reminded MPs that 10 police officers were killed during the strike and their bodies “dismembered”, arguing that the full story of Marikana has yet to be told.
Phiyega holds a BA in Social Work from the University of the North, a BA Hons and MA in Social Sciences from Unisa and the University of Johannesburg, and a postgraduate diploma in Business Administration from the University of Wales.
She has held senior roles in both the private and public sectors, including executive positions at Absa Bank and Transnet.
Another matter that was discussed during Friday’s proceedings was the case of Joshlin Smith, who was six years old when she went missing from Saldanha Bay in February 2024.
Her mother, Racquel “Kelly” Smith, was among those subsequently arrested and convicted in the case that involves charges of kidnapping and human trafficking.
Joshlin has not yet been found.
Cele, who was police minster at the time she went missing, on Friday told MPs that he recalled Smith’s behaviour after her daughter went missing.
Under Cele, violent crime rates remained high but relatively stable, with murders hovering around 15,800 annually and a murder rate of approximately 32.9 per 100,000 people by 2010/2011, close to a post-apartheid low.
Aggravated robberies totaled around 120,000, and reported rapes stood at roughly 59,000 per year.
In contrast, crime trends shifted upward under Phiyega, with the Institute for Security Studies noting murders began “increasing consistently” from 2012 onward.
The parliamentary hearings will resume on Tuesday, 28 October 2025, and a new witness is expected to testify. The committee is investigating allegations that criminals have infiltrated South Africa’s law enforcement, politics and private businesses.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.