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Former Police Minister Bheki Cele at Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee, October 23, 2025.
Former Police Minister Bheki Cele says he was surprised by some of the allegations made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in July this year.
Mkhwanazi made allegations of criminal infiltration, corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system, involving among others, Police minister Senzo Mchunu, who has been placed on special leave.
Cele is appearing before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee looking into these allegations.
Cele, who was the police minister between February 2018 to June 2024, would have overseen the operations of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) during his tenure.
This is the same task team that Mchunu decided to disband on December 31 last year.
Cele says, “Some surprised me, like when he called (Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack) Sibiya a criminal. Look I am not a police (officer) so I don’t know what gets for a police to call another police (officer) that, but I felt it had to be investigated further to get to the facts on the matter.”
Cele says that he feels that too much concentration is placed on the police, while as in Mkhwanazi’s allegations, fraud and corruption is pervasive across the justice system.
He says, “I hope someone will look at Correctional Service. If you go at any Correctional Service, you take cellular at 11, five o’clock they have new ones, who brings them? Those cellular they don’t walk there, somebody brings them there…who is that?”
Cele also says he was never part of any meeting where a decision was made to disband the PKTT.
He says a decision was made in 2023 by the Inter-ministerial Committee that he headed, that the PKTT will continue with its work.
