When Parliament asked Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala whether he had ever given money to one of the country's most senior policemen, his answer was that he never had. On Tuesday, under oath before the Madlanga Commission in Pretoria, the figure he conceded was R550,000.
The larger part, R500,000, was by his account a contribution to the wedding of Shadrack Sibiya's child in North West. A further R50,000, he said, covered the then deputy national police commissioner's travel to the SAPS Excellence Awards in Durban. Neither payment, he insisted, was made to win the R360 million police health contract awarded to his company.
Asked why a businessman would hand a police general half a million rand, he would not say in public. Security concerns were his stated reason, and he offered to explain behind closed doors.
It was the second day of testimony from the man at the centre of the inquiry that Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi set in motion. On 6 July 2025 the KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner alleged that senior figures, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu among them, had undermined investigations into political killings and organised crime. Sixteen months later, the alleged paymaster has begun to confirm parts of that picture, while disowning others.
A story that kept changing
On Monday Matlala's position was different. That day he denied the R500,000 and said R50,000 was all Sibiya ever got from him. By Tuesday the larger payment was back on the record.
The accounts of how it was paid do not match either. One statement he confirmed on Tuesday places the handover in the basement of the State Theatre in Pretoria. Notes taken by a commission investigator record him saying he delivered the cash to Sibiya's home at Copperleaf Golf Estate. A third version, in the statement drafted for his failed plea deal, routes the money through a friend's company.
Then there are the impala. Before Parliament's ad hoc committee, Matlala brushed off as rumour the claim that 20 of the animals went from him to Sibiya. This week he accepted they ended up at the general's property, saying he had handed them to Sergeant Fannie Nkosi simply to be rid of them. "At that point in time I didn't care who they were going to," he said.
Evidence leader Thabang Pooe put a different sequence to him. WhatsApp messages from March 2024, Pooe said, show a case number, impala details and a police docket moving between Matlala and Nkosi within days. Matlala's reply was that the two were unconnected, and that he could not recall the case.
Nkosi is alleged to have been the go-between for Sibiya and cartel figures, and left the police after his arrest for, among other things, keeping dockets at home.
Pressed on whether he had lied to Parliament, Matlala answered: "This is why I said I do not want to incriminate myself." Co-commissioner Sesi Baloyi called him obstructive and reminded him he was not there for an "outing".
The disputed statement
Much of the questioning turned on a statement prepared in June for a plea-and-sentence agreement that later collapsed. Matlala now disowns large parts of it. His claim is that investigators from the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) pressured him to sign and wanted him to implicate national commissioner Fannie Masemola, Mkhwanazi and crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo. He conceded initialling every page without reading it.
Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, who chairs the inquiry, refused a bid by Matlala's counsel to keep the statement out. Three Idac officials were suspended by Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi on 30 July. Their responses to Matlala's claims were not available at the time of writing.
Sibiya has not yet answered this week's evidence. In his own testimony he denied receiving any money from Matlala. He resigned from the police on 12 October. He has been in custody since 21 September on separate sexual offence charges, which he denies, after a Randburg magistrate refused bail.
What has held up, and what has not
Mkhwanazi's briefing made three broad claims: that a task team on political killings was shut down to protect a syndicate, that senior police were in business with criminals, and that politicians were involved.
The second has the most behind it so far. The commission's second interim report, handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa on 29 May, recommended disciplinary steps and criminal investigation against Sibiya, Nkosi, a protected witness and North West businessman Brown Mogotsi. Major-General Richard Shibiri, a senior organised crime officer, was dismissed in June over his association with Matlala. KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Lesetja Senona resigned after testifying. Twelve police officers face fraud and corruption charges alongside Matlala over the Medicare24 contract.
The first claim rests on undisputed facts and a disputed motive. Mchunu has told the commission he wrote the directive to disband the task team and acted within the law. Mkhwanazi's allegation was that 121 dockets were pulled from the team and left untouched in Pretoria. Each of those dockets is a murder case with a family waiting on it.
The third is unproven. Mchunu denies the allegations and says he has never met Matlala. Parliament's ad hoc committee, in a draft report finalised last month, found no evidence linking the two. Mogotsi told the commission Matlala's money went only towards the ANC's January 8 celebrations in Cape Town, not a presidential campaign.
Not every charge has stuck. Masemola was summonsed in April over the same contract, but has since been cleared and is back at work.
Madlanga himself has stressed that the commission has not yet made definitive findings on Mkhwanazi's allegations. Mchunu, Mkhwanazi and Khumalo are all due back under subpoena in the coming weeks.
Matlala returns to the stand on Wednesday. He has now said, under oath, that he gave a police general R550,000. He has not yet said, in public, why.
