By Everson Luhanga
- Cele told MPs that businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala said he was used to channel R360-million in police tender money towards Senzo Mchunu’s bid for high office.
- He said the MK Party is funded by “the king of zama zamas” who cleans diamonds and allegedly bankrolls both the party and “ubaba”.
Former Police Minister Bheki Cele came out swinging at Parliament’s ad hoc committee on Thursday, 23 October, spilling explosive details about political funding, dodgy police tenders and the power of organised crime.
Cele, who served as minister from 2018 to 2024, faced MPs investigating corruption and interference inside the South African Police Service. He began by dismissing reports that he refused to cooperate with the inquiry. “I even paid for my own flights to meet evidence leaders,” he said.
The meeting that changed everything
Cele told the committee that he met businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala at Durban’s Beverly Hills Hotel last year, after being introduced by a man named Bongani.
Matlala, he said, revealed shocking details — including that he was part of a political scheme to use police tender money to boost Senzo Mchunu’s campaign to become either president or deputy president. The deal was linked to a R360-million SAPS health-services contract.
Cele said Matlala also admitted knowing Mchunu personally, contradicting Mchunu’s own claims that they had never met. “He told me he was being used and that the money was meant for politics, not policing,” said Cele.
The former minister said he was disturbed to learn that 23 of Matlala’s bodyguards came from the army’s elite Special Task Force. “That raised red flags,” he told the committee.
Cele dropped another bombshell when he claimed the MK Party is bankrolled by illegal mining bosses. “The king of zama zamas cleans diamonds, funds MKP, maybe funds ubaba and through him MKP,” Cele said. He added that these underworld networks are tightening their grip on politics.
Fighting crime and failed justice
Cele took aim at suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu for disbanding the Political Killings Task Team, saying it was done without proper process. “That decision should have gone through the Inter-Ministerial Committee,” he said.
Cele said he only found out when he saw Mchunu’s letter dated 31 December 2024.
He also repeated what KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said at the Madlanga Commission — that it is wrong for repeat violent offenders to get bail. “We can’t have killers and rapists walking free and striking again,” Cele warned.
He told MPs that South Africa’s biggest crimes are now being planned from inside prisons. “These people get bail, go out and commit more crimes. We are fighting the same faces every week,” he said.
Cele’s fiery testimony has deepened the tension between him and Mchunu.
The committee is expected to call more witnesses, including Matlala and Mogotsi, to verify the claims about political funding and the MK Party’s alleged ties to illegal mining money.
Pictured above: Bheki Cele at the ad hoc committee hearing.
Image source: X/Parliament of RSA
