A draft affidavit by businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala alleges that senior police officials and two former ministers took cash, livestock and property offers in exchange for helping him position his company for National Health Insurance contracts. The claims, detailed in a draft affidavit prepared while Matlala was in custody, were reported by The Sunday Independent and published by IOL on October 25.
None of the allegations have been established in court. But for a country still waiting for the promises of 1994 to reach the majority, the document reads like a blueprint of how the state is captured: ministers, generals and officials allegedly auctioning public institutions to the highest bidder while ordinary black South Africans queue at broken clinics.
What Matlala alleges in the draft affidavit
Matlala prepared the document to support a request to become a state witness or pursue a plea agreement relating to his company Medicare 24 Tshwane District's SAPS medical-services contract. A proposed deal with the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption would have seen him serve eight years and testify against implicated individuals. It collapsed after a magistrate insisted on 12 years, and Matlala withdrew his cooperation.
At the centre of the affidavit is the claim that former deputy public works minister Bernice Swarts offered in 2023 to help him secure a lease to operate a hospital on the SAPS Tshwane campus, and to obtain additional government buildings so his business would have a footprint ahead of NHI implementation. Swarts denies ever meeting Matlala.
“As a deputy minister, I did not even get myself involved in the administration matters in the department,” Swarts said.
Cash at the airport, cash in the bathroom
Matlala says he struggled for about two years to secure the hospital lease before Sergeant Fannie Nkosi told him former deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya wanted to help. Sibiya, he alleges, arranged a meeting with Swarts at her official residence in 2023.
According to the affidavit, Sibiya said Swarts wanted R80,000 to buy alcohol for a traditional ceremony. Matlala claims he handed the cash to Sibiya at OR Tambo International Airport. Sibiya then allegedly requested another R200,000 for Swarts's assistance with the lease. Matlala says he made the money available and received the signed lease in mid-December 2023. The affidavit does not independently establish that Swarts requested or received either payment, and no NHI contract was ever awarded to the company.
The SAPS medical-services tender, Matlala claims, was handled with similar methods. He says SAPS employee Brian Neville Cartwright agreed to help Medicare win the tender in exchange for R50,000 after each payment cycle once billing began. He further alleges that during a January 2024 visit to Sibiya's office at SAPS headquarters, he placed R50,000 in a bin in the officer's private bathroom on Sibiya's instructions.
After Medicare secured the contract, Sibiya allegedly demanded R500,000 for securing the tender, then another R500,000 after telling Matlala the first payment had gone to a senior police official he knew as General Fanie. Matlala also says he supplied Sibiya with 20 impalas and was asked to buy a R4 million property in Midrand, which he abandoned because he believed the demands would never end.
The R1 million agreement with Bheki Cele
The affidavit reaches the office of former police minister Bheki Cele. Matlala says he approached Cele in December 2024 after the Political Killing Task Team searched his home and business premises and seized firearms. They allegedly met at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Durban on December 23, where Cele offered to help resolve his difficulties with police.
Matlala claims they agreed on a R1 million payment for assistance with the medical-services contract. He says he handed Cele R700,000 in cash in a Woolworths bag at a Menlyn Maine penthouse in Pretoria in January 2025, and paid the remaining R300,000 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in March. Cele has publicly denied receiving cash but acknowledged staying at the Menlyn penthouse free of charge. He did not respond to calls and text messages seeking comment, according to IOL.
Matlala further alleges Cele wanted him to buy a R6 million retirement property in Trafalgar, KwaZulu-Natal, and later requested another R300,000 for vehicle repairs. He refused to pay further. Cele also allegedly supplied notes to help Medicare respond to SAPS concerns about breach of contract and poor performance.
“I realised that Cele's intervention, if any, did not assist at all, as Medicare's contract was terminated by the SAPS,” Matlala states in the affidavit.
Why this matters for the NHI and the country
The National Health Insurance scheme is meant to be the great equaliser, the promise that a child in rural Limpopo will see the same doctor as a minister in Pretoria. Instead, the affidavit suggests the very architecture of NHI was being carved up before implementation even began, with insiders allegedly trading access to state buildings and tenders for cash in shopping bags.
There is a bitter irony here. The ANC fought for a state that would serve the black majority. Thirty years into democracy, the names in this affidavit are black politicians and black officials allegedly selling that state back to a connected black businessman. Colonialism and apartheid excluded us from the economy; this generation of looters excludes us from the liberation dividend.
The rot does not stop at our borders. TimesLIVE reports that Matlala allegedly used a fake Eswatini royal identity to secure a lease for a luxury Pretoria mansion in Waterkloof Ridge, and an Eswatini civil registrar was found guilty of corruption over documents linked to him. The tentacles of one man's alleged fraud reach into another country's civil service.
What happens next matters. The allegations remain untested, and Swarts, Cele and Sibiya deserve their day in court like anyone else. But the pattern, R80,000 for ceremony alcohol, R500,000 for a tender, R1 million for ministerial favour, is the pattern South Africans know too well. The NHI will succeed only if the state that administers it is cleaned out first.
FAQ
Who is Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala?
He is a South African businessman whose company, Medicare 24 Tshwane District, held a SAPS medical-services contract that was later terminated.
Have the allegations been proven?
No. The claims appear in a draft affidavit prepared while Matlala was in custody, and none have been established in court.
Did Matlala receive an NHI contract?
No. The affidavit does not establish that any NHI contract was awarded to his company, only that he allegedly sought to position himself for one.