South Africa's police boss charged in connection with controversial health contract

South Africa's police chief has been formally charged with failing in his duties to provide proper oversight in his role following a health contract that has become the subject of a criminal investigation.

General Fannie Masemola, 62, was summoned to court over his alleged part in the awarding of a controversial $21m (£15.5m) tender, which has since been cancelled.

He has been charged with violating part of South Africa's Public Finance Management Act, which governs how public finances are managed. The case comes amidst a national inquiry examining allegedly widespread corruption involving police officers and politicians.

Masemola told journalists after the hearing that he denied the charges.

"I know that I'm not guilty, I'm not wrong, but the [law] must take its course," he said after his brief appearance at the Pretoria Magistrate's Court.

The court case relates to a tender awarded to controversial businessman Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala's company Medicare24 Tshwane District in 2024, which was meant to provide health services to the police.

It was cancelled a year later, in May 2025, and since then a dozen senior police officers have been formally charged over their role in the awarding of the contract.

They have been accused of colluding with Matlala, who has also been charged with corruption. None of them have yet been asked to plead in court.

Masemola, who was also not asked to enter a plea, is the only one who has not been charged with corruption. He faces four counts of breaching the public finances act.

These charges fall under section 38 of the law, which outlines the responsibilities of accounting officers. Masemola, as the police's accounting officer, has been accused of failing in his duties.

His case has been postponed until 13 May when Masemola will join the 16 others, including senior police officers and Matlala, in the case.

The allegations about health contract tender came up at an inquiry, known as the Madlanga Commission, set up by President Cyril Ramaphosa last September to look into corruption in the police force.

The commission was prompted by shocking allegations made last year by Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, a provincial police chief, that organised crime groups had penetrated the upper echelons of President Ramaphosa's administration.

Masemola is the third police chief to face a criminal investigation while in office.

Jackie Selebi, the country's longest-serving police boss, was sentenced in 2010 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of taking bribes from an Italian drug lord, Glen Agliotti, in exchange for turning a blind eye to his criminal activity.

In 2017, Khomotso Phahlane was charged with corruption. Those charges were withdrawn the next year, but he was again arrested on similar charges in 2019 - which he denies. The case is still in court.

Masemola, who has spent 39 years in the police force, is not accused of corruption himself, nonetheless his appearance in the dock is a disappointment for some observers.

Cobus Steenkamp, a police science lecturer at North-West University, told the BBC his appointment in 2022 had brought "new hope" that someone not "part of the corrupt value chain within the police structures" was assuming the role.

Prior to getting the top job, Masemola served as deputy police commissioner for operations and played a leading role in co-ordinating security for all elections since and including 1994, the country's first democratic poll that saw the end of white-minority rule.

He also headed the police's VIP protection unit and, according to Dr Johan Burger, a former member of the police force and a crime expert at the Institute for Security Studies think tank, was a "highly regarded" officer.

"He became part of the fight against corruption," Burger told the BBC - explaining how Masemola had supported Mkhwanazi when he made his explosive revelations last year.

It is not clear if Masemola will face suspension. President Ramaphosa has only said he "will be addressing the matter… in accordance with the law".

Burger believes Masemola should be "fully investigated", but said it was important that he remained in his position "for as long as possible to see [through] this process of a proper cleaning up of the service".

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