KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi installed state blue lights in about five vehicles belonging to controversial Gauteng tenderpreneur and attempted murder-accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Mkhwanazi was speaking on Thursday during the second day of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into criminality, political interference and corruption. The commission’s public hearings are taking place at the Brigitte Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria.
It is chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
Matlala enjoyed privilege from police
During his testimony on Thursday, Mkhwanazi told evidence leader Advocate Mahlape Sello SC that Matlala “enjoyed too much privilege from law enforcement”.
“About four or five of Cat Matlala’s private vehicles were registered by the deputy chief of police of Ekurhuleni, Major-General Mkhwanazi. He facilitated the registration under the municipality as if the vehicles are municipal vehicles.
“By doing this, the vehicles belonged to the municipality. And they were registered on record as municipal vehicles. It did not end there, he [Julius Mkhwanazi] took the blue lights of the municipality and fitted the blue lights on these vehicles and gave them to Matlala… In terms of the Traffic Act, blue lights are for law enforcement officers. They are emergency lights and warning lights…,” said Mkhwanazi.
Earlier, Mkhwanazi told the commission that there are politicians serving in parliament and in the executive (cabinet) that politically interfere with the work of the KZN SAPS political killings task team and with the work of police’s crime intelligence.
Politicians, MP interfering in SAPS work
Mkhwanazi said the two politicians serving in parliament that politically interfered with the work of the police political killings task team and the police’s crime intelligence are DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard and National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams.
Kohler-Barnard and Adams denied Mkhwanazi’s allegations.
Adams serves as an MP on parliament’s Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation, and Portfolio Committee on Police.
Kohler-Barnard serves as an MP on parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and the Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Allegations made by Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi will continue with his testimony on Friday at 9.30am.
Mkhwanazi, who is the commission of inquiry’s first witness, said the bulk of his testimony will be about the work of the KZN SAPS political killings task team. Also on criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.
In his current case, Matlala (49) is charged alongside his wife Tsakani (36), two alleged hitmen Musa Kekana (35) and Tiego Floyd Mabusela (47), and Nthabiseng Nzama (23) for the attempted murder of Matlala’s ex-lover Tebogo Thobejane.
Nzama is the daughter of Mabusela.
Various charges
The five accused are facing various charges. These include conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, fraud, and money laundering in connection with the alleged hit on Thobejane.
Tsakani and Nzama are out on R20, 000 and R10, 000 bail, respectively. Kekana and Mabusela abandoned their bail applications. They remain in police custody.
Matlala was denied bail on Wednesday by the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court. He remains in police custody at the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria.
On October 17 2023, Thobejane and her friends Anele Malinga and Khumbulani Ncube were travelling in a black BMW. The car was sprayed with a hail of bullets at the corner of Bryanston and Wilton Drive in Bryanston, Johannesburg. The shooting occurred between 10pm and 10.30pm.
Thobejane was shot in the foot, while Malinga was wounded and shot in the spinal cord. Malinga has been left paralysed.
Out of fear for her life, Thobejane fled the country after the shooting incident. She is currently residing at an undisclosed location abroad.
