‘Babita Deokaran paid for your Matlala hotel stay with her life’ — MP to Cele

Bheki Cele, who was once South Africa’s police minister, and who also filled the position of top cop, says his two free stays at organised crime-accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s penthouse was like being at any hotel.

He testified this 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 was Cele’s second day as a witness at the committee, and at one point during the proceedings, his usually animated demeanour became more subdued.

This was when the Patriotic Alliance’s Ashley Sauls asked him questions about his dealings with Matlala.

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The previous day, Cele had told MPs that he met Matlala, who he said he knew “very well,” at Durban’s Beverly Hills Hotel in December last year.

Cele had also confirmed that after the meeting, he had twice stayed at Matlala’s penthouse in Pretoria, free of charge and on Matlala’s invite.

This was after Matlala’s home was raided, and before he was charged with attempted murder and money laundering.

Matlala was also subsequently accused of being a member of a drug trafficking cartel known as the Big Five.

‘She paid with her life’

Sauls on Friday asked Cele to describe his experience at Matlala’s penthouse.

“Well, it was like staying in other hotel rooms… [It was] no special experience,” Cele replied, explaining that the penthouse was part of a hotel.

Sauls put it to Cele that someone had actually paid for his “free” stay at Matlala’s penthouse.

“Her name is Babita Deokaran. She paid for your free stay with her life,” he said.

Deokaran was fatally shot outside her home in August 2021, after she reported a series of fraudulent transactions at Gauteng’s Tembisa Hospital.

Read more: Deadly greed: Babita Deokaran murder probe reveals police failure, enduring graft and fading hope for justice

Matlala’s name has cropped up in that scandal.

The Special Investigating Unit has named him as doing business with Hangwani Maumela, who it says is linked to one of several syndicates involved in R2-billion looting at the hospital.

In Parliament earlier this week, it emerged that Cele also had a meeting with Matlala at a residence that he later found out belonged to Maumela.

During Friday’s proceedings, when Sauls mentioned Deokaran, the usually jovial Cele appeared more solemn.

Sauls put it to him that he had said he knows Matlala “very well” but Cele said they had only known each other for about three months, so if he needed to withdraw the words “very well”, he would.

‘Tembe’s suspected murder’

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.

Read more: ‘AKA had possibly gotten away with murder’ — When Love Kills: The tragic tale of AKA and Anele

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.

‘I don’t know if Joshlin is alive’

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.

Read more: Joshlin Smith’s family still searches for answers after kidnappers’ appeal bids denied

One of the first things he said she asked police was if her boyfriend was safe.

Smith had also wanted to know if her boyfriend could be brought to her.

Cele told MPs she had said “absolutely nothing about the child”.

He said the search for Joshlin had even extended to a ship at a European port.

“I don’t know if Joshlin Smith is still alive,” Cele said on Friday.

He added that if she was alive, the situation she was in was probably not comfortable for her.

‘Phiyega threw herself under the bus’

Another issue discussed on Friday during the ad hoc proceedings was the Marikana massacre.

This relates to the tragedy that happened on 16 August 2012 when cops killed 34 mine workers in Marikana, North West.

It was one of the worst and most lethal acts attributed to police officers in democratic South Africa.

Riah Phiyega had been national police commissioner at the time.

Read more: Marikana massacre: A deadly blemish in South Africa’s history

On Friday the EFF’s Leigh-Ann Mathys asked Cele about the Marikana tragedy and whether he believed other police officers had thrown Phiyega “under the bus” by not taking responsibility for what happened.

“She threw herself under the bus,” Cele replied.

“[Police] generals went to brief her on how to handle the situation…

“She was given the way out, but she opted not to ride the bus but [to] go under it.”

Cele said it may make him sound arrogant, but had he been national police commissioner at the time of the Marikana massacre, it would not have happened.

The Parliamentary ad hoc committee’s proceedings were continuing on Friday afternoon at the time of publication. DM