Firoz Cachalia, born on 22 July 1958, is a South African legal scholar and politician currently serving as the acting Minister of Police. He previously held office as a member of the Gauteng Executive Council from 2004 to 2010. An anti-apartheid activist in the Transvaal region, he entered the Gauteng Provincial Legislature in 1994 as a representative of the African National Congress (ANC) and later served as Speaker from 1999 to 2004. Following his provincial government tenure, he became a law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) and assumed the role of chairperson of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council in 2022.
Early Life and Education
Born in Benoni, then part of the Transvaal (now Gauteng province), Cachalia is the brother of Azhar Cachalia, a prominent activist and judge. During the late 1970s and 1980s, he engaged in anti-apartheid student activism at Wits University, facing multiple detentions and restrictions under the Internal Security Act. He was also affiliated with the United Democratic Front. In the early 1990s, he worked as an attorney at Bell Dewar and Hall and as a researcher at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, while representing the Transvaal Indian Congress during negotiations at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts, an LLB, and earned an LLM from the University of Michigan in 1996.
Political Career
Cachalia entered the Gauteng Provincial Legislature in 1994 as an ANC representative and was later elected Speaker from 1999 to 2004. He also held membership in the South African Communist Party.
On 29 April 2004, following the general election, he was appointed to the Gauteng Executive Council by Premier Mbhazima Shilowa, serving as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Community Safety. On 13 July 2024, he assumed the role of acting Minister of Police, succeeding Senzo Mchunu. He retained this position until the 2009 election, continuing under Shilowa’s successor, Paul Mashatile. Under Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, he was appointed MEC for Economic Development in May 2009 but was removed during a cabinet reshuffle in November 2010.
Academic and Later Career
After leaving government, Cachalia joined Wits University’s School of Law as a professor. In July 2012, President Jacob Zuma appointed him as a non-executive director of the South African Reserve Bank for a three-year term. In September 2022, he was named chairperson of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, a body established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to combat corruption and state capture, including implementing recommendations from the Zondo Commission. He also served on the ANC’s National Executive Committee until December 2022, having been co-opted in October 2019.
