Police minister Bheki Cele dropped a bombshell when he announced that the police were looking for notorious Mamelodi taxi boss Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela.

Speaking during the funeral of Matwetwe lead actor Sibusiso Khwinana at the weekend, Cele said the police have arrested Mathibela’s spokesperson Elias Skhosana and four bodyguards from KwaZulu-Natal.

They are expected to appear in court on Monday on charges yet to be announced. In November last year, Sowetan lifted the lid on Mathibela’s alleged extortion ring in the township where taxi owners, business people and foreign nationals owning spaza shops were allegedly forced to pay a protection fee.

Cele said the residents had pleaded with him during a recent imbizo in Mamelodi to stop Mathibela's criminal activities.

"His spokesperson responded, telling the newspapers that I wasn’t there [in Mamelodi] for crime-fighting. [He said] I was there for electioneering. I can tell you where he is now so that you can visit him; I arrested him last night,” Cele said.

Following the arrest of Mathibela’s bodyguards, police are now looking for the taxi boss, said Cele, without mentioning the charges that Mathibela would face.

“We arrested his partner [another taxi boss] this morning.There's six of them, we’re now looking for him [Khekhe].

“Sifice izicathulo zakhe sishisa izolo kodwa namhlanje uzolala kuthina [we found his shoes still warm yesterday, but today he will sleep behind bars].”

An alleged former hitman, Mathibela, 32, was on PowerFM last week claiming there was a well-orchestrated campaign against him. He is currently out on R50,000 bail in connection with the murder of North West tycoon Wandile Bozwana.

Bozwana succumbed to gunshot wounds at Unitas Hospital in Pretoria in October 2015. He had been a victim of a daylight shooting in which no fewer than nine bullets were pumped into a car in which he was a passenger.