Former police minister Bheki Cele told parliament on Thursday that investigators believed Anele Tembe, the fiancée of late rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, was murdered when she fell from a Cape Town hotel in 2021.
Cele made the explosive claim during testimony before parliament’s ad hoc committee probing alleged corruption and political interference in the South African Police Service.
“Police did the investigation and they believed that that daughter was murdered,” Cele told the committee, referring to Tembe as the daughter of prominent Durban businessman Moses Tembe.
The 22-year-old fell from the tenth floor of the Pepperclub Hotel in Cape Town on 11 April 2021. She was with Forbes at the time of her death.
Cele revealed he had raised concerns about the case with President Cyril Ramaphosa. “I went to the president, personally. I said: ‘Mr President, your minister of police is going to do something funny. He’s going to support the private prosecution’,” Cele testified.
The former minister expressed frustration about prosecutorial delays. “The prosecutor refused to give certificate. So you can’t prosecute, you can’t give certificate. So you’re stuck in the middle,” he said.
Cele told lawmakers that a magistrate conducting an inquest is now questioning why the case was not enrolled as a criminal matter.
“But now I know that in that inquest, the magistrate who is there now is asking the question, why this thing was not enrolled? Because it’s an obvious case,” Cele said. “You should ask the prosecutor who did not enrol it in the Western Cape.”
The National Prosecuting Authority initially ruled Tembe’s death a suicide in 2022. Her family has disputed these findings.
An inquest into her death has faced repeated delays. It was initially scheduled to begin in April 2024 but has been postponed multiple times.
Forbes was shot and killed in Durban in February 2023 in what police described as an assassination. Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with his murder.
Moses Tembe has repeatedly denied allegations linking him to Forbes’ killing, calling such claims “untrue and without substance” in a statement last year.
The Tembe family has maintained their daughter did not take her own life. In a letter to prosecutors, they cited defensive marks on Forbes’ body as evidence supporting their position.
Cele’s testimony forms part of broader hearings into alleged criminality and corruption within South African law enforcement. The ad hoc committee was established following explosive allegations by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi about political interference in police operations.
The former minister, who served from 2018 to 2024, is expected to return to the committee on Friday for further questioning about his tenure and knowledge of organized crime syndicates.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Frederick Van Wyk confirmed earlier this year that the investigation into Tembe’s death “was never closed and is still an active investigation.”