‘Humble, respectful and romantic’ – Saps Brigadier on her relationship with Matlala

Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala’s wife may have learned, like the rest of South Africa, on Thursday that her husband was in an on-and-off relationship with Saps Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, the section head for quality management: criminal record and crime scene management at the forensic services division in Pretoria.

Matjeng testified at the Madlanga commission after she was identified as one of the police officers who had received money from Matlala.

Medicare24 Tshwane District

Matjeng told the commission that her role at the Saps does not involve the awarding of tenders. She said she was not aware that Matlala’s company, Medicare24, had placed a bid for the tender either.

“In March 2024, I think I was six months into my new responsibility as the section head of quality management, criminal record and crime scene management, I became aware of the health risk manager contract,” explained Matjeng.

“The awareness was triggered by the coming to an end of the previous health risk manager contract, Metropolitan. There were discussion of the expired contract of Metropolitan. It was further said that a three-month extension was granted to Metropolitan until a new service provider for health risk management is appointed.

“That’s when I requested more information so that I could understand the implementation of the medical surveillance and biological monitoring programme.

“Later in the month of June, the management of quality management was informed by the division supply chain management that the new health risk manager service provider contract was awarded to the Medicare24 Tshwane District.”

‘My superior knows’

She said she informed her supervisor, Major-General Manamela, of her on-and-off relationship with Matlala.

“Major-General Manamela indicated that this is part of my scope of work and cannot relegate that responsibility, especially since the facilitation and coordination of medical surveillance and biological monitoring programme is solely the responsibility of the environmental compliance officer, which we will refer to as ECO, and if there are challenges, I still need to address them professionally.

ALSO READ: Witness F: ‘Matlala had access to most generals’ at Saps head office

“It must be noted that I was not part of the bid specification committee or bid evaluation committee, nor bid adjudication committee, and was not aware of the service providers that submitted the bids for the tender or any engagement with any previous health risk manager that was contracted by Saps.”

Challenges with tender

Matjeng said the Medicare24 Tshwane District contract with Saps did not run smoothly, as there were challenges relating to the implementation of medical surveillance.

“Communication between me and Medicare24 was on email, telephone and WhatsApp. Due to the delay and non-response on the email, we then agreed with Mr Matlala that we can communicate by WhatsApp or telephonically because that line of communication was long established, where we would also talk about our private matters.

“He would relay his frustrations about the contract, how they are financially affecting him, such as late payments and partial payments which are made by Saps, which is affecting Medicare24, which is affecting Medicare24’s ability to pay the subcontracted service providers.

“[There were] delays in facilitating the authorisation by making an appointment with his contracted service providers, as most contracted service providers do not want to work with him because the company is owing them.”

Relationship with Matlala

Matjeng said she met Matlala in 2017 through a colleague who uploaded Matjeng’s photo on her WhatsApp status.

“The following day, she told me that my picture had attracted a lot of people and there is a guy named Cat who requested her to give me my contact. She asked for my permission if she should give him my contact.”

She consented to her number being given to Matlala.

“We then started talking with Cat and ended up having a romantic relationship. We had an on-and-off relationship,” said Matjeng.

ALSO READ: Texts from Witness F’s phone appear to corroborate Matlala’s version

“Sometimes we would even get a year break from one another without talking to each other. The romantic relationship was still in existence before his arrest.

“Mr Matlala is romantic and showered me with gifts, including money. The romantic relationship was well known to people close to my circle, and it is an open secret that we were in an on-and-off relationship.”

She said she knew Matlala as a businessman who owned several businesses. She did a search on him on the Saps system through her colleagues and found a case against him, which was later dropped, long before they met. During their relationship from 2017, she was not aware of any arrest or conviction against Matlala.

Money and gifts

Their relationship was like any other, where money and gifts would be exchanged and this had nothing to do with the tender, she said.

“I have never borrowed money from Mr Matlala, and the money and gifts received from 2017 were a gift from a boyfriend.

“None of the gifts or monies received from him were related to me having an influence on the awarding of the tender or the execution thereof, as I started receiving them from 2017 while being in our on-and-off relationship.

“From the inception of our romantic relationship, he would pay money directly into my FNB account, but when he was requesting another bank account, I asked him why another bank account, and he said he doesn’t want the wife to find out about our relationship, the gift and the monies because she knows she knows me only as a friend.

“While we were in a relationship, in my own knowledge, he was never arrested nor convicted of any criminal offence, which would have made me doubt or think that he’s engaged in any criminal activities. I have never experienced any evil side which is being portrayed currently, and I know him as a humble, respectful and romantic person.”

She said Matlala never asked her for favours that could jeopardise her career.

Is the relationship real?

The commissioners, however, disputed her testimony that she only knew about Matlala’s tender in March and that there was a romantic relationship between them.

The commission will subpoena the minutes of meetings with Metropolitan and others to determine whether she was indeed in the dark about the tender.

Commission chair Mbuyiseli Madlanga disputed the claim of a romantic relationship between Matjeng and Matlala.

Madlanga took issue with the lack of terms of endearment and romance in their communication.

She explained that she called him Mr V, and he called her Diva, saying they avoided terms of endearment to avoid the wife finding out about their relationship.

However, Madlanga said requesting large sums of money would have given them away and that he was not convinced they were not romantically involved.

“All your texts sound business-like. I find it very strange that this is how people who are romantically involved write to each other.”

“We would have our regular phone call where we would discuss our private matters, and also on WhatsApp, but I’m not a romantic person and would only call him ‘Mr V’. I am inviting the commission to investigate my relationship with Matlala and ask my circle,” she responded.

READ NEXT: KZN Hawks head accuses Mkhwanazi of threatening him after Matlala’s testimony