Who Is "Cat" Matlala? The Businessman at the Center of South Africa's Police Corruption Inquiry

A South African businessman named Vusimusi "Cat" Matlala is expected to answer questions at an important government inquiry into police corruption. Matlala, who is 49 years old, has been accused of giving expensive gifts and money to senior police officers in order to win valuable contracts. The inquiry is led by retired judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga and has been going on for about ten months. Many South Africans have been following the case closely and are eager to hear what Matlala has to say.

Matlala grew up in a township east of Pretoria, South Africa's capital city. He was born in 1976, when the country was still ruled by a white-minority government. He told lawmakers that he was raised for a time by a single mother, who he said eventually disappeared from his life, leaving him to fend for himself on the streets.

After a difficult childhood, Matlala said he slowly built a life for himself. He told a separate parliamentary inquiry that he turned things around in 2017, when he registered his first official business offering security services. He later expanded into healthcare, which led to large contracts — first with a hospital and then with the police — even though he admitted he had no experience in healthcare at all.

Matlala's path to success was not clean, however. In 2001, he was convicted and went to prison for possessing stolen goods. Over the years, he was arrested for other crimes, including house robberies and a cash-in-transit heist, though he denied involvement and was either found not guilty or had the charges dropped.

The Madlanga Commission has heard many shocking claims about Matlala's relationships with senior police officers. One officer, Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, told the commission she had a romantic relationship with Matlala and received expensive gifts from him, including shots of the weight-loss drug Ozempic. Another officer, Major-General Richard Shibiri, admitted to taking a personal loan of about $4,000 from Matlala, which he said was to fix his son's car. Both Matjeng and Shibiri have since been fired from the police force.

Matlala has also been linked to even more senior figures in South Africa's government. He told parliament that he paid former Police Minister Bheki Cele a 500,000 rand facilitation fee — roughly $31,000 — after police returned guns that had been taken from him. Cele admitted he had stayed at Matlala's penthouse apartment in Pretoria twice but denied receiving any money. The current Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu, has also been accused of indirectly receiving campaign money from Matlala, which Mchunu denied.

Another high-ranking officer, Deputy Police Chief Major-General Shadrack Sibiya, was accused of receiving 20 impalas — a type of African antelope — from Matlala around the time a major police contract was awarded to him. Sibiya denied the claim, saying he would never accept anything from a contractor. A witness also claimed that Matlala had bragged about his close connections with very senior police officials, though Matlala has denied having any close personal friendships with these officers.

There were also allegations involving a local government area called Ekurhuleni, just east of Johannesburg. It was claimed that a local acting police chief, Julius Mkhwanazi, arranged for blue lights and sirens to be put on Matlala's personal cars — something usually reserved for official police vehicles. Mkhwanazi denied the story but did admit to receiving money from Matlala and even called him a "blood brother" during his appearance at the inquiry.

South Africans are now watching closely to see what Matlala will say at the Madlanga Commission. The inquiry has already produced many startling revelations about how police contracts may have been won through gifts and personal relationships rather than fair processes. Many people hope that hearing directly from Matlala will help explain how alleged corruption on such a large scale was able to happen.