President Jacob Zuma met with suspended police commissioner General Bheki Cele in Durban, Cele's spokesman said on Saturday.
“I can confirm that President Zuma met with General Cele on Friday as scheduled by a meeting request from Cele earlier,” Cele's spokesperson Vuyo Mkhize said.
“I am not at liberty to go into the discussions of the meeting that took place or why the meeting was scheduled.”
Mkhize said Cele wrote to Zuma on May 27 to request a meeting and Zuma responded on June 6.
The Sunday Times reported that Zuma's spokesman Mac Maharaj declined to confirm or deny the meeting at the Dr John L Dube House, the presidential residence in Durban.
The newspaper reported that Zuma's letter informing Cele that he is fired was delivered to Cele's house in Durban on Tuesday.
Media reports on Thursday said Cele had in fact been fired and Maharaj said he refused to comment on “rumours”.
In May, a board of inquiry appointed by Zuma found Cele unfit to hold office and recommended he be fired. He has been suspended since last year.
Board of inquiry chairman Judge Jakes Moloi presented the inquiry's report to Zuma on May 20.
The inquiry followed a finding in July by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that Cele's involvement in deals to acquire police office space was “improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration”.
Madonsela concluded that while Cele had not signed the final lease, he had initiated negotiations with property tycoon Roux Shabangu, and had seemed determined to secure the leases despite warnings against them.
The board of inquiry was mandated to establish whether Cele acted corruptly, dishonestly, or with an undeclared conflict of interest in relation to two police lease deals signed with Shabangu, one for a building in Pretoria, another for a building in Durban worth R1.6 billion. - Sapa