Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson says they are investigating allegations that politicians and SAPS high-ranking officials may be involved in the alleged unlawful awarding of a SAPS tender to Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Matlala’s company, Medicare24 Tshwane District, was awarded a R360m tender in 2024 to provide health risk management services to SAPS. The procurement was alleged to have irregularities and inconsistencies with the bidding process. The contract was terminated due to failure to meet contractual expectations.
Testifying before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of corruption in the criminal justice system, Johnson said the case was referred to Idac by SAPS on February 16 to investigate potential fraud and corruption by SAPS officials and Matlala’s associates.
“We have criminal investigations against SAPS members and other service providers where supply chain management processes were circumvented, and corruption or fraud may have taken place,” Johnson said.
EFF leader Julius Malema asked which people are implicated and whether suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu and former police minister Bheki Cele are among them. Malema also asked whether there are any politicians in general being investigated by Idac.
Johnson said it would be irresponsible to provide the names of those implicated while investigations are ongoing but confirmed politicians are implicated.
“It would be irresponsible to mention potential suspects until we get evidence. I have learnt you can throw a name out there and follow what you think is an investigative path, but that doesn’t amount to evidence. It’s irresponsible.
“What I can say is there are several persons implicated, regardless of their ranking and who they are. As long as there’s evidence, Idac will follow that evidence, and where we can, they will be prosecuted.”
After Matlala’s devices were seized by the police during his arrest, Johnson said Idac approached the police for access to the devices to help with investigations.
“We checked with the [Hawks] in Gauteng to say we have a cyber warrant for Matlala’s devices, as they’ve been seized.
“We were able to engage the office of the national commissioner, and he indicated the phones were seized by the political killings task team [PKTT], and he would arrange for those devices to be made available through crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo.”
The two cellphones were subsequently brought to them by a police official in the PKTT while they were still in an evidence bag. Johnson said they were able to download the data from Matlala’s phone but noticed there were gaps.
“It became apparent that data had been deleted,” she said.
“We got the data and continued with the investigations relating to the SAPS tender. There are many people implicated, in SAPS and Matlala’s associates.”
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