The Eswatini government has suspended the senior official who allegedly helped Vusi “Cat” Matlala, to obtain a fraudulent identity document from the landlocked kingdom neighbouring South Africa.
According to the Times of Eswatini, Nonhlanhla Malambe, who is stationed in the kingdom’s Civil Registry Department (within the kingdom’s Department of Home Affairs), was served with a suspension letter by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), pending a high level investigation into her role in the widely reported matter.
The story was broken by the same publication early this year where it reported that in Eswatini, Matlala is known as Vusimuzi Dlamini, who was born in Motshane, a peri-urban village outside Mbabane.
Questions over how Matlala joined family profile
He is listed in Eswatini’s population register as the second-born child of Christinah Thembi Shongwe of Motshane. According to the leading Eswatini publication, Shongwe’s actual second-born child is not Matlala, leaving authorities puzzled as to how his details appeared in her family profile.
His father’s details are also missing from the registry entry, and Shongwe recently told the paper that she received no gratification for the alleged fraud.
Last week, the issue of the Eswatini ID came to the fore during the testimony of Lietanant General Dumisani Khumalo of the SAPS’ Crime Intelligence, where it emerged that Matlala is also saved as “Dlamini” in the phone book of Brown Mogotsi, an alleged associate of suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu.
This emerged when WhatsApp conversations between Matlala and Mogotsi were read out at the Madlanga commission sitting in Pretoria.
The Sunday World reported late last month that during Matlala’s bail hearing that he is a flight risk as his passport shows that he entered Eswatini and illegally re-entered South Africa. As such, according to official records, he is still in Eswatini.
According to the police, the controversial Matlala crossed the border into Eswatini in April 2024 and was not detected by Home Affairs immigration officials upon his return to the country.
