A former City of Ekurhuleni official yesterday told the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that had it not been for queries from News24, Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala would have been able to abuse the unlawful ‘blue lights’ status given to his security company’s cars – potentially for an unknown criminal scheme.

‘If (reporter) Jeff Wicks didn’t raise the alarm, whatever it is that the vehicles were doing would have continued. I don’t know for how long, it might be that, indeed, there might have been an underlying purpose why this scheme was generated.’

Matlala’s security company cars were unlawfully registered as EMPD cars following the interventions of then-EMPD Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi, who has also been accused of unlawfully promoting himself to a Deputy Commissioner position – and then appearing with the wrongly positioned epaulettes.

On Tuesday, following days of testimony about Mkhwanazi’s alleged involvement in a murder cover-up and copper theft, the City of Ekurhuleni confirmed that he had been suspended.

During testimony before the commission last week, suspended EMPD chief Jabulani Isaac Mapiyeye read out an unsigned letter that Matlala had sent to his department on 15 June 2022, in which he claimed that his company, CAT VIP Protection, had signed a ‘memorandum of agreement’ with the EMPD, which he said aimed ‘to enhance the EMPD’s efforts in crime prevention and community safety and to assist in VIP protection training, tactical training and skill development’.

News24 notes that the agreement, which Mapiyeye and Nciza have both dismissed as fraudulent and wholly irregular and unlawful, was signed by Mkhwanazi but not by Matlala – and was then used to justify Matlala’s CAT VIP vehicles being registered as EMPD vehicles and illegally fitted with blue lights.

Full News24 report