South Africa arrests 12 senior police officers on suspicion of corruption

FILE -South African riot police stand outside the great hall at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)

JOHANNESBURG — Anti-graft investigators in South Africa have arrested 12 senior police officers on allegations of corruption and fraud, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The arrests come while an inquiry, ordered by President Cyril Ramaphosa, continues into allegations of high-ranking corruption in the South African police and which resulted in the suspension of the police minister last year.

A second inquiry, by Parliament, is also looking at claims that senior police officers had corrupt relationships with alleged crime bosses and in some cases allegedly received money from them for favors.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world and allegations of corruption within the police are not new.

The 12 arrests relate to an allegedly corrupt contract to provide health and well-being services to police officers, the National Prosecuting Authority’s anti-corruption investigative unit said in a statement.

The police officers made their first court appearance on Wednesday along with Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, the owner of the Medicare24 company that was allegedly awarded the contract, who is suspected of links to organized crime.

Matlala is currently being held in a maximum-security prison on unrelated charges of attempted murder.

All the officers submitted affidavits in support of their bail applications and prosecutors indicated to the Pretoria Magistrates Court that they would not be opposing their bail.

Some of the officers arrested were part of the bid committee that evaluated and awarded the contract and prosecutors alleged on Wednesday that they should have disqualified the company’s application.

In July 2025, KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lt-Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi claimed that criminal syndicates and drug cartels had infiltrated the police service at the highest level.

Nearly seven months after the commission led by retired Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga started its hearings, and the lawmakers started their own probe, close relationships between alleged criminals and top police officials have been revealed.

Commissioners and lawmakers have been hearing evidence of alleged exchanges of money, and at times personal relationships, between high-ranking officers and individuals allegedly involved in organized crime.

A parliamentary committee has concluded its hearing, while the commission will resume its hearings next month.

In their testimonies before the commission and the parliamentary committee, Mkhwanazi and other police officers have accused suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu and deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya as enablers of high-level wrongdoing.

Mchunu has been accused of illegally ordering the closure of a critical crime-fighting unit in order to protect alleged criminals which it was investigating, while Sibiya, who is also suspended, has been accused of receiving money and gifts from people linked to organized crime.

Ramaphosa has received the commission’s interim report, which recommends prompt criminal investigations against at least 14 individuals.

Some witnesses have asked to testify anonymously for fear of reprisals.

In February, a former police reservist -- whose name was mentioned during the corruption inquiry -- allegedly shot himself at a petrol station just days after he survived an alleged attempt on his life.

In November, a former traffic police department official gave harrowing in-camera testimony on allegations of torture and the illegal disposal of a body in a dam by police officials. Four of the 12 people named as persons of interest in the investigation into that killing are now dead, police said.

Weeks after giving his testimony, the former official was shot multiple times in front of his family outside their home in the south of Johannesburg.