Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi testifies for the last time before the ad hoc committee. (Photo: Parliament/X)
Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says the controversial tenderpreneur Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala is actually just a small cog in a bigger crime machine – and Matlala apparently knows it herself.
The KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner revealed on Wednesday on the last day of the parliamentary ad hoc committee’s session that Matlala wanted to become part of the large organized crime cartel, known as the Big Five.
Mkhwanazi admitted in his closing evidence that serious investigations into the crime cartel, which infiltrated the police, are currently underway.
“I may not divulge everything before the ad hoc committee because of the investigation, but there is one celebrity called Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala who is trying to replace one of the Big Five. He was actually a proxy of one of them before.
“So, compared to the Big Five, he is nothing… He is a small fish in a big pond.”
“I’m not sure if he will be happy to hear that,” Glynnis Breytenbach, DA MP, Mkhwanazi pointed out.
“He knows it himself,” Mkhwanazi insisted. “There are big bras that generals are afraid to mention by name.
“These Big Five we’re talking about are just the tip of the iceberg. There are big boys out there that haven’t been talked about yet – some of them in Cape Town, some of them in KwaZulu-Natal and many other places.”
Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala during his testimony before the parliamentary ad hoc committee. (Photo: EFF/X)
The Big Five
Lt. Gen. Dumisani Khumalo, commissioner of the police’s crime intelligence unit, revealed in his testimony before the Madlanga commission of inquiry last year that the Big Five consisted of five individuals who mainly do business from Gauteng.
Khumalo identified Matlala and controversial businessman Katiso “KT” Molefe as two of the Big Five. However, Khumalo did not want to name the others.
The Big Five mainly traffic in drugs, but are also associated with murder-for-hire, kidnapping, tender-rigging and extortion, which are largely related to drug-trafficking.
The crime cartel’s infiltration of the police was exposed when WhatsApp conversations were recovered from Matlala’s phone after he was arrested for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend, Tebogo Thobejane.
Among other things, they came across a message that Maj. Gen. Lesetja Senona, head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal, sent to Matlala to inform him that Senzo Mchunu, the minister of police, had disbanded the task force on political murders – which Matlala believed was investigating him.
Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala during his testimony before the parliamentary ad hoc committee. (Photo: EFF/X)
‘We hardly had a problem’
Mkhwanazi insisted on Wednesday that a force almost took over the government if Lt. Gen. Shadrack Sibiya, the now suspended deputy national police commissioner, became police chief.
Sibiya is also alleged to have close ties to crime syndicates and to have interfered in politically motivated murder investigations.
“Sibiya then said to Matlala at one point: ‘I have no one else to look after me but you, Matlala.’
“So, when a general says this, he surrenders himself to Cat Matlala.
“It’s a concern. It tells you that we almost had a problem,” Mkhwanazi testified on Wednesday.
The parliamentary ad hoc committee’s investigation into the allegations about political interference in police investigations that Mkhwanazi made at a media conference in July last year has now been finally concluded.
Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi testifies for the last time before the ad hoc committee. (Photo: Parliament/X)