Ramaphosa Reinstates South Africa Police Chief Masemola After Charges Withdrawn

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reinstated the national police commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, the Presidency said on Friday, October 16. Masemola will resume his full duties on Monday, October 19, six months after he was placed on precautionary suspension over finance charges linked to a police health services contract.

Masemola has led the South African Police Service since 2022. His return puts the service back under its permanent chief after Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane ran it in an acting role. Ramaphosa welcomed Masemola back and thanked Dimpane for her service as acting commissioner, the Presidency said.

Charges withdrawn in September

The case against Masemola collapsed last month. The National Director of Public Prosecutions instructed on September 15, 2026 that the charges against him be withdrawn. The Pretoria Magistrates Court formally withdrew them on September 22, 2026.

The charges came from the Independent Directorate Against Corruption. Masemola faced four counts of breaking the Public Finance Management Act, the law that sets financial and procurement controls for state bodies. Prosecutors said he failed to follow those oversight and procurement controls in a police health services contract awarded to Medicare24, Reuters reported. Reuters put the value of the contract at 228 million rand, about 13.85 million dollars. Masemola denied the allegations.

He and Ramaphosa agreed in April 2026 that he would be treated as being on precautionary suspension. The step followed his appearance in the Pretoria Magistrates Court to face the finance charges.

A contract at the centre of a wider inquiry

The contract has drawn attention well beyond one court case. Reuters reported that it became a focus of the Madlanga Commission, which is looking into claims that criminal syndicates moved into parts of South African law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

That inquiry is still running. Masemola's reinstatement settles his own criminal case, which ended when prosecutors withdrew the charges. It does not end the wider questions the commission is examining about how the police service awards contracts and who influences those decisions.

The Presidency statement, issued in Pretoria, offered no new comment on the contract itself. It set out the dates of the prosecution decision and the court withdrawal, and recorded the president's welcome for Masemola and his thanks to Dimpane.

What happens next

Masemola resumes his full duties on Monday, October 19, 2026, the Presidency said. He returns to a service with a permanent chief again, and to the same contract questions that the Madlanga Commission continues to hear evidence on.