Jeremy Vearey

Major-General Jeremy Vearey is the Mitchells Plain cluster commander for the South African Police Service and head of police anti-gang unit in the Western Cape. He is best known for his work as the head of the province's anti-street gang unit and as Nelson Mandela's former bodyguard.

Early life Jeremy Vearey was born into a politically active family in Elsies River, Cape Town in apartheid South Africa where he first encountered the Black Consciousness movement and Marxism. Later in life his father went on to become one of the first African National Congress (ANC) alderman in the Theewaterskloof region of Genadendal. His counter intelligence tasks ranged from preventing the infiltration of ANC structures and "counter destabilization of the ANC in the Western Cape through the use of street gangs."

Major-General Vearey was fired in May 2021 after being found guilty of misconduct for "disrespectful" social media posts linking to media reports, allegedly aimed at National Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole. South African Communist Party provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu said the dismissal had the hallmarks of an orchestrated, pernicious witch-hunt. The ANC in the Western Cape said of the firing that "This decision must be reversed".