Ex-Street Vendor Becomes Central Figure in South Africa Police Graft Probe

VUSIMUSI MATLALA FACES QUESTIONING AT SOUTH AFRICA’S MAJOR POLICE CORRUPTION INQUIRY

Retired Constitutional Court judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga and his commission panel are scheduled on Wednesday to question Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala, 49, the businessman whose name has dominated ten months of testimony into alleged corruption across South Africa’s law enforcement institutions. It will be the first time Matlala directly addresses allegations that senior police officers and officials have placed at his door through months of sworn evidence.

The Madlanga Commission has heard extensive testimony about Matlala’s alleged relationships with police leadership and his provision of gifts and financial benefits to officers. Those allegations were not previously put to him directly, though he gave testimony at a separate parliamentary corruption inquiry last November. At that hearing, he denied knowing senior police officers and politicians personally and rejected corruption allegations, while acknowledging donations connected to the African National Congress, the main party in the coalition government.

Wednesday’s questioning is expected to go well beyond what Matlala addressed in parliament. Witnesses before the commission have alleged that he supplied 20 impalas, the weight-loss drug Ozempic, and personal loans to senior police figures in connection with securing lucrative police contracts. He has also been accused of involvement in an alleged drug trafficking cartel known as the Big Five, allegations he has not yet publicly addressed.

Matlala has been held in police custody for more than a year on a separate attempted murder charge, which he denies. His wife faces the same charge and has been granted bail. He was also charged with corruption related to providing health services to the police, pleaded guilty last month as part of a prosecution agreement, then withdrew that plea after the agreement collapsed.

His background, as he described it to lawmakers, traces from his birth in 1976 during South Africa’s white-minority rule. He grew up in a township east of Pretoria, raised by a single mother who later, in his words, “disappeared on me.” He described himself as having been “a street kid” who had to raise himself. He reunited with his mother in 2002 when she was terminally ill, and after her death learned she had been sexually assaulted, which he attributed to her albinism, a condition surrounded by harmful myths in some communities.

After leaving school, Matlala engaged in informal business activities that led to criminal charges. In 2001 he was convicted of possessing stolen goods and served prison time. Over subsequent years he was arrested for house robberies, a cash-in-transit heist, and assault. He denied involvement in all of these and was either acquitted or had charges withdrawn. He explained his nickname “Cat” not as a reference to surviving trouble, as some suggested, but to his nine children with his wife.

His formal entry into business came in 2017, when he registered a security services company. He later expanded into healthcare and secured contracts with a hospital and subsequently the police, despite having no prior track record in healthcare services, as he acknowledged to lawmakers.

The allegations against him intensified after September, when the commission began hearing witness testimony implicating multiple senior officers in relationships with Matlala that witnesses characterized as corrupt.

Suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was alleged to have indirectly received financial campaign money from Matlala for his “political endeavours.” Mchunu denied those accusations. Matlala’s predecessor as police minister, Bheki Cele, was accused of receiving a 500,000 rand “facilitation fee” from Matlala following the return of seized firearms. Matlala told parliament that Cele also requested help purchasing a home and paying for his son’s studies, requests he said he refused. Cele admitted knowing Matlala for a couple of months and staying at his rented Pretoria penthouse twice, but denied receiving money from him.

Suspended deputy police chief Maj-Gen Shadrack Sibiya was alleged to have received 20 impalas from Matlala around the time the police contract was awarded. Both men denied a close relationship, insisting their dealings were strictly professional. Sibiya stated he would never “receive anything from a service provider.” A witness, by contrast, alleged that Matlala had bragged about his “close connections with very senior police officials,” including Sibiya, following his arrest in May 2024.

Brig Rachel Matjeng, who oversaw the police contract awarded to Matlala, told the commission she had an on-off romantic relationship with him that included lavish gifts, among them shots of Ozempic. Maj-Gen Richard Shibiri, head of the police’s organised crime unit, admitted to receiving a personal loan of $4,000 from Matlala, which he repaid, saying the money was for his son’s car repairs. Shibiri denied a close friendship with Matlala despite frequent contact and personal advice. “At no stage was I aware that he was a member of any cartel or that he was a subject of any criminal investigation,” he said. Both Shibiri and Matjeng have since been fired from the police force.

Meanwhile, Matlala’s name also emerged in relation to Ekurhuleni, a local government area east of Johannesburg. While Julius Mkhwanazi served as acting police chief there, he allegedly arranged for blue lights and sirens to be fitted on Matlala’s personal vehicles. Mkhwanazi, since suspended, denied the allegations but admitted receiving money from Matlala, describing him as a “blood brother” during his appearance before the commission.

The central question now before the Madlanga Commission is whether Matlala’s testimony will clarify how such conduct was permitted to persist within South Africa’s police institutions, and whether it will implicate further office-holders in the alleged network.