Head of the police organised crime unit had exchanged about 16 calls with Vusi “Cat” Matlala at the time he claimed to have had minimal communication with him.
Maj-Gen Richard Shibiri told the Madlanga commission that after April 2024 when his phone was repaired he does not remember calling Matlala, who is accused of having infiltrated the criminal justice system.
In his evidence in chief, Shibiri claimed to have had minimal communication with Matlala since April 2024.
On Wednesday, the commission flagged the call exchange, which was extracted from data in Matlala’s phone. The first flagged call was 15 minutes long and was made on December 30 2024 – a few days after police had raided Matlala’s home.
Shibiri claimed he called Matlala to ask for his bank account number so he can transfer the money owed to him.
Asked why such a call for a simple enquiry would take 15 minutes, he said: “He [Matlala] said he was in a meeting and said he would call me back and he made me hold [the call],” he said.
He said he did not know why he failed to hang up and call at a later stage.
The next day, Shibiri called Matlala for about five minutes. He claimed he wanted to check if Matlala had received the payment he had made.
He made another two-minute-long call to Matlala on January 7 2025, in which he claimed to have confronted Matlala for using his name during the police raid at his home.
Commissioner Sandile Khumalo suggested that the reason Shibiri may have been angry was because he or Sgt Fannie Nkosi, who the commission has revealed Shibiri used to send around to Matlala, might have tipped off Matlala.
Khumalo highlighted that at the time police raided Matlala’s home on December 6 2024, Shibiri owed him R50,000 and that there is a suspicion that Matlala was alerted, which was concerning for him.
Khumalo then said it’s either Shibiri or Witness F who itipped off Matlala about the raid.
Witness C, a member of Gauteng counter intelligence, told the commission that on December 6 when they raided Matlala’s home, Matlala told them about his connections with their seniors such as Shibiri and Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya.
The last call Shibiri made to Matlala was a week before he was arrested for the alleged attempted murder of his former girlfriend Tebogo Thobejane.
Evidence leader Thabang Pooe also revealed that according to Shibiri’s accounts, he had sufficient money and didn’t require money from Matlala.
Shibiri said he chooses how to deal with his money.
Sowetan
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