Alleged crime kingpin Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala told the Madlanga Commission that his admissions of payments to former deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya were made under duress.
He accused investigators from the Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Adac) of threatening him into signing a 204 witness statement without reading it. Matlala was offered an eight-year plea deal to turn state witness.
The courts rejected the plea deal and recommended a 12 year prison sentence. Matlala rejected the new sentence and the deal fell through.
Matlala has denied large sections of his witness statement under scrutiny at the Madlanga Commission.
Appearing on his second day of testimony, Matlala denied writing paragraphs 56, 57, 58 and 60 of his witness statements in the plea deal. He has accused Idac investigators Dylan Perumal, Brian Padayachee and Suneel Bellochun of being behind the fraudulent statement and of coercion.
Evidence leader Thabang Pooe asked Matlala whether paragraph 56 of the 204 Statement, which reveals his link to former police sergeant Fannie Nkosi, was true. The paragraph states: “Sibiya said to me, in Fannie's presence, that I can see how Fannie is trying to help and I should organise some more money for Fannie as he is going to help to ensure that complaints against Medicare are handled.”
“Just to confirm, it was inserted by the Idac investigators?” Pooe asked.
“Yes,” Matlala replied.
“And it would have been completely made up by them?” Pooe continued.
“Yes,” Matlala responded.
He also denied Paragraph 57 which states: “After the payment of the R500 000 referred to above and after some passage of time, I was informed by Sibiya that he needed another R500 000. Sibiya told me that the first R500 000 I gave him was handed over to Fannie.”
Commissioner Sandile Khumalo reminded Matlala of witness testimony from Witness A and B who told the commission that Matlala had admitted, during an interrogation, that he had made payments to Sibiya.
“We also have an affidavit of Mr Dlamini who says that you volunteered this information to him that you paid R500 000 to General Sibiya. Then we have an affidavit that you signed, confirming that you paid R500 000 to General Sibiya,” Khumalo said.
Matlala denied testifying that he had paid Sibiya money. He said he had not read the witness statements the Idac investigators drafted before he had signed it.
“In the three or four other versions you dealt with Idac, you signed and initialled without having regard to the content?” Pooe asked.
“Yes, I did,” Matlala replied.
He said he understood his 204 statement to be part of the 104A plea sentence agreement for the Medicare24 case. He emphasised that he had never read the witness statement the investigators drafted.
Under tough questioning from the commissioners about whether he paid Sibiya R500 000, Matlala asserted the right to not incriminate himself.
Commissioner Sisi Baloyi said Matlala’s refusal to answer questions was not helpful to the commission.
Matlala further denied Paragraph 58 which states that he felt compelled to pay Sibiya.
“What did you understand you were doing when you were initialling these pages now that you tell us you don't agree with paragraphs in the pages?” asked Baloyi.
“Signing that statement I did because under due influence. It's not like I did it willingly. I was not afforded the chance to go through the statement. It was a huge bunch of papers so I just initialled each and every page. There was no one who read those back to me,” Matlala replied.
He conceded to committing misrepresentation for signing the statement, adding: “I did all of those things, yes, my intention was not to misrepresent.”
Matlala said the first payment he had made to Sibiya was R500 000, after Sibaya requested the payment for his daughter's wedding in North West province.
For security reasons, Matlala said he could not comment on Paragraph 60, wherein he admits to paying another R500 000 to Sibiya for the metropolitan excellence award in Durban. He said although he had not been a bidder, he had been invited and had sponsored the event. He said he was willing to testify about that on camera.