Controversial businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala alleges that he was promised help securing government buildings to position his company for lucrative contracts under the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, according to a draft affidavit detailing his dealings with senior police officials, former deputy public works minister Bernice Swarts and former police minister Bheki Cele.
Matlala says Swarts undertook to help him secure a lease to operate a hospital on the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Tshwane campus and acquire additional government buildings, giving his business a potential foothold in the government healthcare market.
The allegations appear in a draft affidavit prepared by Matlala while in custody, in which he recounts how he pursued the hospital lease before his company, Medicare 24 Tshwane District, secured a separate Saps medical-services contract.
The document was intended to support a request to become a state witness or pursue a plea agreement relating to the medical-services contract. Under the proposed agreement with the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC), Matlala was to serve an eight-year prison sentence and testify against implicated individuals. The arrangement fell through after a magistrate insisted on a 12-year sentence, following which Matlala withdrew his cooperation.
The affidavit contains serious allegations that have not been established in court. The claims require independent verification and responses from those implicated.
At the centre of Matlala’s account is a meeting he says was arranged by former deputy police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya with Swarts, who was then the deputy minister of public works.
Matlala alleges that Swarts promised to assist him with the hospital lease and discussed expanding his property portfolio in preparation for the implementation of NHI.
“She will ensure that I get more buildings to lease from Public Works so that when the National Health Insurance (NHI) kicks in, I need to be in a position where I have a footprint that will enable me to get a contract with the government under the NHI project,” Matlala states in the affidavit.
The account raises questions about whether Matlala’s efforts to establish a government healthcare business extended beyond the Saps contract and whether political and police connections were allegedly used to help him gain access to public infrastructure.
Swarts is now the deputy minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment. The affidavit does not establish that she received money from Matlala or that their alleged discussions resulted in any NHI contract being awarded to his company.
The lease and the alleged payments
Matlala says he had struggled for about two years to obtain authorisation to lease the Saps hospital when Sergeant Fannie Nkosi, whom he had known for several years, told him Sibiya wanted to help.
According to Matlala, during a meeting at Sibiya’s Centurion residence in 2023, the senior police officer told him he knew Swarts and could arrange an introduction.
“Sibiya said to me, 'I hear you have been experiencing some problems to get the lease agreement authorised with Public Works',” Matlala recalls.
He says Sibiya told him he had a friend who was the deputy minister of public works and could help resolve the problem.
According to the affidavit, Sibiya’s driver subsequently took Matlala to Swarts’s official residence, where Sibiya was waiting.
Matlala alleges that Swarts undertook to assist him with the lease and discussed the prospect of obtaining additional government buildings to establish a footprint ahead of NHI.
He further alleges that, before the lease was authorised, Sibiya told him that Swarts wanted R80,000 to buy alcohol for a traditional ceremony.
“Prior to the lease agreement being authorised, Sibiya contacted me and indicated that Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts wanted money to buy alcohol for a traditional ceremony,” Matlala states.
He alleges that he agreed to provide the money and handed R80,000 in cash to Sibiya at OR Tambo International Airport to pass on to Swarts.
Matlala further claims that, a few days before the lease was authorised, Sibiya told him that Swarts wanted another R200,000 to help secure the agreement.
“A few days before the lease agreement was authorised, Sibiya contacted me and informed me that the lease agreement was authorised and said that Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts wanted money for sorting out the lease agreement,” he states.
Matlala alleges that he subsequently made the additional R200,000 available.
He says he received the signed lease in mid-December 2023.
The draft affidavit does not independently establish that Swarts requested or received either payment. Nor does it establish that the alleged NHI discussions led to any government healthcare contract.
The SAPS medical-services contract
Matlala’s account also details how Medicare pursued a separate Saps medical-services tender, alleging that he had arrangements with police officials to help the company secure the contract.
He says he had an agreement with SAPS employee Brian Neville Cartwright, whom he had known since 2019, under which Cartwright would assist Medicare in winning the bid.
“At the time of submission of this bid I had an agreement with Brian that he would assist Medicare in any manner necessary to ensure that Medicare wins the bid,” Matlala states.
He alleges that Cartwright was to receive R50,000 after each payment cycle once Medicare began billing the police service.
Matlala also claims that Sibiya discussed the tender with him and said he would see what he could do to help.
According to the affidavit, Matlala visited Sibiya’s office at Saps headquarters in January 2024 and placed R50,000 in a waste bin in the officer’s private bathroom after being instructed to do so.
“I carried R50,000 in cash with me to the meeting that Sibiya had asked for,” Matlala alleges. He informed me that there was a small disposal bin inside the restroom and told me to put the money inside it.
Matlala further alleges that, after Medicare was awarded the contract, Sibiya asked him to bring R500,000 in cash to his Centurion residence, saying considerable work had been done to secure the tender.
He says he obtained the money through a transfer from his company to a company owned by his friend Given Makofane, who withdrew the cash.
Matlala alleges that he handed the R500,000 to Sibiya and was later told that another R500,000 was required because the first payment had allegedly been handed to a senior police official he knew as General Fanie.
He says he made the further payment at the basement of the State Theatre in Pretoria.
The affidavit also alleges that Matlala supplied Sibiya with 20 impalas and that Sibiya asked him to buy a Midrand property valued at R4 million, with payments to be made as Medicare received money from Saps.
Matlala says he eventually abandoned the proposed property purchase because he believed the demands would continue.
These allegations do not, by themselves, establish that the payments secured the tender or that every person mentioned received money.
Cele’s alleged intervention
Matlala alleges that he approached Cele in December 2024 after the Political Killing Task Team searched his home and business premises and seized firearms.
He says an intermediary arranged a meeting with the former police minister at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Durban on December 23, 2024.
According to Matlala, Cele undertook to help resolve his difficulties with the police and contacted senior SAPS officials in his presence.
Matlala alleges that Cele subsequently offered to help with the medical-services contract and that, during a meeting on December 26, the former minister said he expected payment for his assistance.
“He said to me that I must make sure that I pay him for helping me as he said, ‘I don’t work for you’,” Matlala states.
He alleges that they agreed on R1 million.
Matlala says he arranged for R700,000 to be withdrawn from the Medicare account in January 2025 and handed the cash to Cele at a penthouse in Menlyn, Maine, Pretoria, where the former minister was staying.
“On the 9th January 2025 I arranged for R 500,000.00 cash to be withdrawn from the Medicare account at Menlyn Maine, and again on the 10th January 2025 I arranged for R 200,000 to be withdrawn from the same account and branch,” he states.
Matlala alleges that he handed the money to Cele in a Woolworths bag.
He claims he paid the remaining R300,000 during a meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel in March 2025.
“I gave Cele the balance of the R1m we had agreed on. It was R 300,000 in cash,” Matlala states.
The affidavit also alleges that Cele wanted Matlala to purchase a property in Trafalgar, KwaZulu-Natal, valued at R6m, where the former minister intended to retire.
Matlala claims Cele sent him pictures of the property and said his son, an engineer, could invoice him to explain the payments.
He further alleges that Cele later requested another R300,000 to repair his vehicle and his wife’s vehicle. Matlala says he travelled to KwaZulu-Natal in May 2025 but ultimately decided against making further payments.
The affidavit does not establish that Cele received the alleged payments or that his interventions secured the continuation of Medicare’s contract.
Matlala says Cele also supplied him with notes prepared by a senior SAPS legal official to help Medicare respond to a police letter concerning alleged breach of contract and poor performance.
He alleges that Cele suggested the police should settle the dispute out of court and that Medicare could sue Saps for R300m.
However, Matlala acknowledges that the intervention did not save the contract.
“I realised that Cele’s intervention, if any, did not assist at all, as Medicare’s contract was terminated by the SAPS,” he states.
The account leaves unresolved the extent to which Matlala’s pursuit of the hospital lease, his alleged NHI ambitions and the subsequent SAPS contract were connected, and whether any of the alleged payments were linked to official decisions.
Swart yesterday denied Matlala’s allegations and said she had not met him even once. She denied having assisted him with the lease and the NHI buildings promise.
“As a deputy minister, I did not even get myself involved in the administration matters in the department,” she said.
Cele did not respond to calls and texts seeking comment on the allegations. Cele has publicly denied receiving cash from Matlala but admitted to having stayed for free at his Menlyn penthouse.