WATCH | SAPS tender: Matlala’s payments to ‘girlfriend’ Brig Matjeng questioned

Six months after Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala secured a R350m SAPS tender, he allegedly sent R38,000 to his “girlfriend”, who is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the same tender he had just scored.

A month later, in February, he charmed her with an even bigger amount of R100,000. In the following two months, March and April, he smothered her with two deposits of R100,000.

All these transactions allegedly happened in 2025 when the couple allegedly rekindled their romance. The total amount was even larger than the R113,000 that Matlala paid to Brig Rachel Matjeng in girlfriend allowances between 2019 and 2021.

On Thursday, the Madlanga commission probing allegations of criminality and political interference in the criminal justice system placed a sharp focus on the payments that Matlala made to Brig Matjeng, who was responsible for overseeing Matlala’s tender.

She is employed as the head of section for quality management in crime record and crime scene management in the SAPS. She had assumed the role seven months before Matlala was awarded the tender in July 2024.

The deposits in question were made into the account of Matjeng’s friend known only as Modiegi, who owns Osizweni Meat Market. Matjeng had passed on Modiegi’s banking details to Matlala in order to conceal their affair from his wife.

Read: Five things you need to know about Brig Rachel Matjeng’s testimony

However, Matjeng denied receiving the money, stating that Matlala owed Modiegi more than R330,000, as he used to take meat to help the community.

“I never got the money,” she said.

She told the commission that Matlala had asked for an FNB account because he didn’t want his wife, Tsakane Matlala, to know that he was showering her with money.

“It was not gratification [for the tender],” she told the commission.

However, commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga did not believe her version and asserted that their cellphone conversations appeared to be “business-like” and not romantic.

“I am not a romantic person; calling him Mr V or ntate [mr] Matlala was me being romantic,” she said.

Madlanga told Matjeng that her reason for why Matlala kept sending proof of payment for the money she didn’t receive did not make sense and that a plausible explanation of the payments was that it was “gratification”.

“You come [here] with the story that Mr Matlala owed this owner [Modiegi], and we see through it. We see right through it. A plausible explanation for these payments was actually what you say they were not [a gratification], because otherwise what you say does not make sense,” he said.

Matjeng told the commission that the money she received from Matlala was money from a boyfriend to a girlfriend and was never related to the tender.

“The money and gifts received from Matlala from 2017 are gifts from a boyfriend. None of the gifts from him were related to me having an influence on the awarding of the tender or the execution of the tender,” she said.

Matjeng is among the five officials that have been referred to law enforcement officials for criminal investigation, as it was found that there is prima facie evidence against them.

Matlala’s company, Medicare24, secured the contract to provide health services to SAPS employees in 2024, but it was later cancelled by national police commissioner Gen Fanie Masemola, who cited alleged procurement irregularities.

Masemola alleged that the contract was awarded under questionable circumstances. The SAPS has since launched an investigation into the awarding of the contract.

North West businessman Suliman Carrim, who allegedly helped Matlala secure the R350m SAPS tender, is set to appear before the commission on Friday.

His appearance comes after he lost his bid in an urgent application to interdict his appearance before the commission.