Pretoria, South Africa |
Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala has told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that he received a R20,000 “loan” from former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Lesetja Senona just days after police raided his Pretoria home, and that he separately scrambled to secure a R20-million loan from businessman Steve Motsumi in a failed bid to save his collapsing R228-million SAPS tender — testimony that has pulled the commission deeper into the alleged web of police officials, tender manipulation and political figures surrounding the tenderpreneur.
Now in his fourth consecutive day on the stand at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria, Matlala testified on Wednesday, 26 August, that Senona gave him R20,000 following a raid on his Pretoria premises on 6 December 2024, when police seized his phones. Matlala initially refused to discuss his relationship with Senona altogether, invoking his right against self-incrimination and arguing the relationship was under investigation by the commission’s own recommendation task team. Evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim rejected the blanket refusal, telling Matlala he could not hide behind a general claim of privilege without pointing to a specific crime the questions related to — a position commission chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga had already endorsed a day earlier when he told Matlala’s legal team: “That’s not the test. The test is, is there a crime? What is that crime?”
Matlala went on to describe Senona as “not friends but he’s my older brother,” saying the pair first met at Senona’s wedding in Mamelodi in 2019 and grew closer after crossing paths again at a funeral linked to the late taxi boss and alleged “Big Five” cartel figure Jotham Msibi in 2021 — the same occasion, Matlala said, that he learned Senona held the rank of general. He told the commission that after the December 2024 raid, he approached Senona for advice, and that Senona subsequently counselled him to challenge the cancellation of the R360-million SAPS health services tender awarded to his company, Medicare24 Tshwane District. Senona resigned from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, commonly known as the Hawks, with immediate effect on 30 June 2026 after coming under scrutiny at the commission over the 2021 theft of 541kg of cocaine from a police facility in Port Shepstone. He has denied any involvement in the missing drug consignment and denied improperly assisting Matlala, though he has acknowledged advising Matlala to sue SAPS when payments on the Medicare24 contract were withheld.
The commission also heard that Matlala and Senona’s son, Thato, who was seeking employment at a Ford dealership in Mamelodi, jointly pursued a property investment together in Menlyn worth between R2 million and R3 million. Matlala confirmed the purchase but repeatedly declined to elaborate further, telling evidence leaders the matter was the subject of a separate police investigation. Under further questioning, WhatsApp messages were put to Matlala allegedly showing Senona forwarding him confidential SAPS documents, including a letter signed by suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu ordering the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) — the unit responsible for two raids on Matlala’s property in December 2024. Matlala said he had first received a copy of that letter from Brown Mogotsi, an associate whose name has repeatedly surfaced elsewhere in the commission’s proceedings. Separately, messages allegedly show Senona sending Matlala confidential SAPS docket information on 10 March 2025, and Matlala testified that Senona had asked him to approach fugitive Esmael Nangy, a suspected transnational kidnapping kingpin who had earlier been arrested at his Centurion home in January 2023 on a Mozambican extradition request.
Matlala’s evidence also touched directly on the tender at the heart of the commission’s Medicare24 probe. He told the commission that after SAPS threatened to cancel the R228-million contract in February 2025 over alleged non-performance, he scrambled to find R20 million from Steve Motsumi, a security company boss and associate of the late Jotham Msibi, in a bid to keep the tender alive. “I needed more money to fund the contract,” Matlala testified, adding that the R20-million loan ultimately never materialised. He distinguished it from an earlier, separate R5-million loan Motsumi had given him, which he said was used to renovate a leased hospital facility at the SAPS Pretoria West College and “had nothing to do with the SAPS tender.” Motsumi has previously been described by Hawks KwaZulu-Natal head Maj-Gen Lesetja Senona as a man he “feared,” and has been named in connection with taxi industry figures allegedly linked to the so-called Big Five organised crime syndicate.
Matlala also testified that during an April 2025 meeting with KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi — whose explosive July 2025 allegations of criminal justice system capture triggered the establishment of the Madlanga Commission itself — he discussed payments made to suspended deputy national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya, though he maintained those payments came from other individuals and not from him directly. Sibiya has repeatedly denied the corruption allegations against him, insisting he was never a “rogue officer” during his 37-year policing career, and has denied having a close personal relationship with Matlala beyond a limited number of meetings.
The mounting testimony builds on evidence from earlier in the week establishing Matlala’s long-running business partnership with tender tycoon Hangwani Morgan Maumela — a central figure in the R2-billion Tembisa Hospital tender fraud scandal — as well as a disputed R4-million payment trail connecting Matlala, Maumela and Msibi. Together, the week’s evidence has painted an increasingly detailed picture of a network linking a single tenderpreneur to senior serving and former police officials, a suspended Cabinet minister’s signature, and one of the country’s largest ongoing corruption investigations.
Matlala’s testimony comes as he separately awaits a full criminal trial in the Medicare24 matter after his plea and sentencing agreement with the National Prosecuting Authority collapsed in July 2026, when a Pretoria magistrate rejected the proposed eight-year effective sentence as too lenient. He now faces trial alongside 12 senior police officers and suspended national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola, who faces separate Public Finance Management Act charges. He is also standing trial on 25 separate charges, including 11 counts of attempted murder, linked to shooting incidents between 2022 and 2024.
The commission is expected to press further into Matlala’s police and political connections as his testimony continues, with evidence leaders indicating that establishing the extent of the alleged capture of law enforcement — rather than determining guilt in any single criminal matter — remains their central focus.
Nuus Bokkie will continue to track developments as Matlala’s testimony at the Madlanga Commission proceeds.
