Actress Tebogo Thobejane has provided a detailed witness statement implicating incarcerated businessman Vusi “Cat” Matlala in the killing of Babita Deokaran and his lawyer friend, who reported him to the South African Revenue Services (Sars) for tax woes. The former Muvhango thespian also suggested in the statement that Matlala’s wife, Tsakani Matlala, played a key role in a subsequent attempt on her life in October 2023.
In her statement, signed under oath on February 18, Thobejane claims that Matlala, a flamboyant businessman, had previously discussed orchestrating violent acts with her.
“He had sent hitmen out, and they missed, and the person was a woman,” she recounts.
Thobejane said she later connected this confession to the killing of Deokaran, a whistleblower associated with exposing corruption at Tembisa Hospital, after seeing Matlala and his business partner, Morgan Maumela, mentioned in news reports.
Thobejane alleges that it was Tsakani, leveraging her professional connections, who orchestrated the attempt on her life due to personal jealousy. The tension, Thobejane suggests, stemmed from her closeness to Tsakani’s baby daddy, Kabelo.
“I suspect Tsakani to be the person behind the shooting, and since she is a CEO of CAT Security, she might have access to hitmen. I suspect that Serge Cabonge and Natasha might be the people who might have been spotting me and were in communication with the hitmen.”
Thobejane’s statement further alleges Matlala’s involvement in the killing of his lawyer friend in 2020, following a fallout over Sars issues. She does not name the lawyer. “He was very worried about the Sars issues, and he had told me that his lawyer friend had reported him to Sars.
After a few days, I also learnt that his friend had died,” she recalls.
Regarding the Deokaran claims, she describes a road trip to Tembisa with Matlala, during which, “on the way, Vusi Matlala stopped on the way, whereby he got into Morgan Maumela’s car, and they sat in the car for a little while; thereafter, we drove to Tembisa at some tavern, whereupon arrival, Vusi met with three African males unknown to me, and I remained in the car.”
Thobejane continues, “After he met with the aforementioned African males, Vusi called me inside the tavern, and he introduced me to them”.
According to her statement, Matlala one day came home appearing “unsettled and was pacing all around the house, and he told me that he was very stressed. I remember him telling me that he had sent hitmen out and they missed, and the person was a woman. I did not respond to him. He then said to me that he was leaving, and he was going to switch off his phone because he did not want people to trace him.”
The climate of fear, Thobejane adds, intensified as she confided her suspicions to Serge. “I talked about my suspicion with Serge, telling him that I believe Vusi Matlala is behind the shooting of Babita and the killing of his lawyer friend who reported him to Sars, and what I know is that every conversation you have with Serge, he records every conversation.
“I think Serge might have sold the recording to Vusi Matlala, which might have triggered him [to think] that I might have overheard his conversation with the three African males and Morgan and might have fuelled him to want to kill me.”
Sunday World learnt that she spent some time with Serge hours before she was shot after leaving a restaurant in Sandton.
Tracing her connection to Matlala back to 2021, Thobejane recounts, “I came to know that Vusi Matlala was married, and he informed me that he was going through a divorce.”
She claims she introduced Matlala to Tsakani, then her business associate, who went by the surname Vernandez, as a potential funder. All three first met at Morningside Shopping Centre.
However, the relationships became entangled quickly.
Thobejane learnt from Kabelo that Matlala had cheated on her with Tsakani from the beginning.
“Later on, after we broke up with Vusi, I learnt that the day that I, Tsakani and Vusi met was the day that they connected, and the day for our second meeting, they were already sleeping together. This I learnt from Tsakani’s baby daddy, Kabelo…”
This revelation led to the collapse of Thobejane and Tsakani’s business partnership.
Thobejane was shot on October 17, 2023, escalating tensions. “I was with my friends at Signature Restaurant, Morningside Mall, having some drinks. On this day, Serge insisted on joining us. One of the friends is Natasha. Later, at night, I saw that my funds were running low and told my friends that we should leave.
“As we were driving on Bryanston Drive at the robots, I heard three gunshots, and the shots were coming from the right side of the car. I was in a state of shock and remained seated without bending or moving forward… I saw [my friend] Japan leaning forward, screaming that she was hit.”
Following this attempt on her life, Thobejane says she fled to Dubai, Ghana and Nigeria, “fearing for my life”.
In November 2024, she was apparently informed by the investigating officer that “there were people arrested for the shooting, and when I saw the pictures of the arrested persons, I realised that one of the persons is the same guy that I saw two weeks prior to the shooting at Kwa-Joyce in Alexandra, and he later became known to me as Musa Kekana.”
Deokaran’s killing remains under investigation, with no charges against either Matlala or Maumela.
