The company they keep — Cele and Mchunu on Matlala, Mogotsi and a murdered convict

If South Africa’s top policing figures are judged for the company they keep – or the company they have been in contact with – they run the risk of being mistaken for operating on the other side of the thin blue line.

Over a week, the country had a chance to hear who some officials have rubbed shoulders, or been in contact with.

These details emerged from Parliament’s ad hoc committee hearing that is investigating accusations that a drug cartel infiltrated South Africa’s law enforcement and politics.

Sidelined police minister Senzo Mchunu and his predecessor, Bheki Cele, testified at the committee last week.

Curious company and communications

While Mchunu’s testimony was often long-winded and at times repetitive, Cele’s was punchier and much more colourful – so too is the cast of characters he has associated with.

Cele was police minister and also national police commissioner, but emphasised during his testimony that he was no longer in government, so did not mind accepting hospitality from people.

MPs had a chance to question him and Mchunu separately last week and kept asking why they had ended up communicating with, or meeting, figures who come across as rather dodgy.

The duo did not seem phased by the fact that they had no real safeguards in place to filter who they dealt with.

Read more: Cele’s allegations — the murder and the Mchunu project for ANC presidency

Cele and Mchunu are part of South Africa’s unprecedented and rapidly growing policing scandal involving several state figures, which began to erupt in July.

This was when KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi went public with allegations about a trafficking cartel infiltrating South Africa’s criminal justice system.

His accusations resulted in Parliament’s ad hoc committee and a parallel hearing, the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

Based on all that has so far emerged through these two proceedings, it appears that Mkhwanazi and Cele are in the same camp while Mchunu is part of an opposing faction.

Here is a breakdown of some of the characters, and the issues connected with them, that stood out in Parliament’s ad hoc committee last week.

Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala

“Cat” Matlala has become something of a hinge connecting various accusations and individuals.

He is in jail because he faces attempted murder and money laundering charges.

Matlala has also been accused of being a member of a drug trafficking cartel known as the Big Five, although he does not face criminal charges in this regard.

Mchunu was adamant last week before Parliament’s ad hoc committee that he did not know Matlala, and that he had never met him in person.

Read more: Mchunu uses ‘dangerous man’ crime accused Matlala’s affidavit to defend himself

Cele, on the other hand, readily admitted to meeting Matlala at Durban’s Beverly Hills Hotel in December last year.

According to Cele, this meeting had been organised by an acquaintance (more on this later), and he had not been aware beforehand that Matlala would be present.

This happened before Matlala was criminally charged, but after his home had been raided, which Cele got to know of.

Matlala and Cele met again a few times after the hotel encounter and Cele even had two free stays at Matlala’s Pretoria penthouse.

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

During last week’s proceedings, Cele first said he knew Matlala “very well”, but the next day said he had no problem retracting this as they had known each other only for a few months.

Matlala, according to Cele, told him that he (Matlala) had been approached to fund a project to help Mchunu become ANC president or deputy president.

Cele’s allegations include that Matlala had apparently met Mchunu and ANC-aligned businessman Brown Mogotsi to discuss that project.

Mogotsi has not yet had a chance to officially respond to all of this.

Brown Mogotsi

During the parliamentary ad hoc committee proceedings last week, Cele said that he did not know Mogotsi.

Mchunu, on the other hand, spent a lot of time explaining the nature of his relationship with Mogotsi.

He said he had known Mogotsi since 2017 and they messaged each other, but the two had never become close.

Read more: Mkhwanazi twisted what I said about comrade Brown Mogotsi, Mchunu tells Parliament

Mchunu insisted that Mogotsi was simply a political “comrade,” and most definitely not an “associate”.

This led to an analysis of the definitions of the two words during the parliamentary ad hoc committee proceedings.

It seemed that Mchunu was reacting to previous allegations, some that surfaced in Parliament via Mkhwanazi, including that Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedric Nkabinde (more on him later) said that Mogotsi was close to Mchunu.

Mchunu said he knew nothing about Mogotsi’s personal life and only recently became aware of other antics he might have got up to. This was based on what Mchunu picked up via the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

The commission has heard allegations that Mogotsi was something of a middleman between Matlala and Mchunu (from which Mchunu has distanced himself).

‘Mabonga’

One of the most shocking pieces of information that emerged from the ad hoc committee last week loops back to Matlala and Cele.

Cele explained to MPs exactly how he allegedly became acquainted with Matlala.

He said the individual who orchestrated their meeting at Durban’s Beverly Hills Hotel in December last year was Bongani Mpungose, who he knew better as Mabonga, and who had ties to private security. 

Matlala was also involved in this industry.

Mabonga was the son of Sputla Mpungose, a figure in the taxi sector in KwaZulu-Natal. 

Read more: Registration of ‘Cat’ Matlala’s private security company sparks shakeup at industry watchdog

(Two decades ago, it was reported that the late Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi identified a person with the same name – “Sputla Mpungose” – as being among a group of “assassins” operating in government flats in KwaZulu-Natal. At the time, Cele, the province’s community safety head, asked Inkatha leaders for proof.)

Criminals are known to have infiltrated aspects of the industries that Mabonga was directly and indirectly tied to – private security and the taxi business. 

Daily Maverick has before reported how some private security officers in KwaZulu-Natal were suspected of getting firearms to the Western Cape, to be used in taxi violence.

Read more: ‘Private militias’ warning after Cape Town taxi shootout

Cele last week told MPs that Mabonga, who had also been his conduit when communicating with Matlala, was subsequently murdered during a shooting in Sandton, Gauteng.

According to Cele, at the time Mabonga was shot, he had been with two bodyguards. (It appears this happened in March this year.)

During the parliamentary ad hoc committee proceedings, Cele acknowledged that Mabonga had a criminal record.

Therefore, when he went to meet Mabonga at the hotel in Durban last year, Cele knowingly went to meet a convict.

A convict who happened to be with Matlala, a businessman whose home police had raided and who later became a criminal accused.

Nkabinde and the PKTT

Throughout Mchunu and Cele’s testimony and questioning in Parliament last week, there were frequent references to Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedric Nkabinde, who was alleged to have leaked sensitive policing information.

Nkabinde’s Gauteng flat was recently raided as part of this overall scandal.

It is in this arena that the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team (PKTT) fits in.

Mchunu was accused of being influenced to order its disbandment on 31 December 2024 (coincidentally, the same month Cele met Matlala) because certain crime suspects were under the impression this would have derailed investigations against them.

Read more: SA’s policing scandal explodes – ‘Under siege’ Sibiya and Mchunu’s chief staffer raided

But Mchunu told MPs last week that this was not the case and that he had ordered its disbandment because of a tight police budget and to ensure a balanced allocation of crime-fighting resources.

Mchunu confidently stated that he had written the directive to disband the PKTT.

Cele, though, through his testimony, appeared to believe that it was Nkabinde who had actually written the directive.

Nkabinde has not yet had the chance to testify about these allegations.

Timmy Marimuthu

Several other people’s names came up during the parliamentary ad hoc committee proceedings last week.

Among them was Panganathan “Timmy” Marimuthu, whose name has cropped up before in various controversies.

Daily Maverick previously reported that the State Capture Commission was told Marimuthu was a convicted drug dealer who had served no time in custody, was associated with Cele and at some point was “signed on as a contact person at Crime Intelligence”.

Read more: State Capture 2.0: South Africa’s stirring threat

The DA’s Ian Cameron asked Cele last week about his relationship with Marimuthu.

Cele responded that he knew Marimuthu “very well”. (The same words he initially used to describe how he knew Matlala, before backtracking.)

According to Cele, he met Marimuthu through work focused on transport.

“At a later stage, I did realise he’s quite close to intelligence people.”

Cele said he had not been in contact with Marimuthu for about two years.

Expanding web

Through last week’s parliamentary ad hoc committee testimony, connections between Cele and various characters were examined.

This shows that Cele was comfortable meeting a convict (Mabonga) as well as a businessman who is now an attempted murder accused and key figure in the developing policing scandal (Matlala).

Cele also knew, “very well”, a figure whose name is entangled in other state controversies (Marimuthu).

Read more: From power cuts to parliamentary hearings: the dark web of South Africa’s law enforcement scandal

As for Mchunu, he has confirmed he was in contact with Mogotsi, but has insisted they were not close.

Mogotsi, meanwhile, is allegedly connected to Matlala.

Parliament’s ad hoc committee is set to resume on Tuesday, when a new witness is expected to testify.

What emerges from it will probably expand this worrying web of alleged and confirmed connections, which the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry is also adding to.

It’s showing to whom some of South Africa’s past and present law-enforcement leaders are linked. DM