Controversial businessman Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala.
Image: ITUMELENG ENGLISH
Alleged crime kingpin Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala's plea deal hung by a thread on Wednesday, after a Pretoria magistrate rejected the eight-year sentence he had bargained for as too soft and said he deserved far longer behind bars.
Magistrate Ignatius du Preez told the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court that the effective eight years the state and Matlala had agreed on did not fit the crime, and read out an effective 12 years as the sentence he considered just.
He then stood the matter down for 30 minutes for the defence and state to decide whether to accept the heavier sentence or walk away from the deal.
When the court resumed, Du Preez postponed the case to July 13.
This was after being told the parties were still in discussions over the sentence.
Matlala cut a lonely figure in the dock, standing in a dark suit and patterned tie as the magistrate delivered his judgment.
"Corruption has robbed South Africans of economic growth, jobs, functioning public services and public trust," Du Preez said.
"It has contributed directly to failing infrastructure, collapsing institutions and widespread poverty.
"These offences were committed out of greed and for no other reason."
Matlala had pleaded guilty last week in a deal that would see him turn state witness against senior police officers in exchange for a reduced sentence.
But Du Preez rejected the argument that his willingness to cooperate showed genuine remorse.
"I view the accused's willingness to assist the authorities as a bargaining tool aimed at securing a more lenient sentence," Du Preez said.
He said Matlala had come forward only after he was already in custody on another matter.
"Accused's willingness to cooperate with the authorities followed only after his arrest, and upon realising the authorities were onto him," he said.
The magistrate said the responsibility for exposing corruption did not lie with the accused.
"The duty to investigate and prosecute those who corrupt the institution of state rests upon the SA Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority, and not upon the accused," Du Preez said.
"The fact that Accused 1 holds evidence against high-ranking officials cannot come at the cost of justice.
"Nor may Accused 1's cooperation be used to purchase a sentence that fails to reflect his own criminality."
Du Preez said he was not convinced that the state's case against other suspects depended on Matlala's help.
He said he knew of no high-profile accused who had signed such a deal and then actually begun testifying, and questioned whether plea bargains were delivering justice.
"Members of society may soon, if not already, doubt the effectiveness of plea and sentence agreements as a tool to effectively pursue justice," he said.
Turning to the sentence, Du Preez found that the deal did not reflect the seriousness of the crimes.
"I find that a sentence of 15 years' imprisonment, of which seven years are suspended, resulting in an effective period of eight years' incarceration, is not just," he said.
"If that was the case, I would have, without a doubt, imposed a much heavier sentence under the circumstances."
He said Matlala had driven the scheme.
"Accused 1 [Matlala] was the principal figure, the instigator in this fraudulent and corrupt venture," Du Preez said.
"High-ranking officials may well have been involved, but the involvement appears to have followed upon the initiative of Accused 1," he said.
Under the sentence Du Preez proposed, Matlala would be jailed for 15 years for fraud, with seven suspended, and handed 10 years each for the corruption and money-laundering counts, of which eight years would run concurrently with the fraud sentence.
The net effect would be an effective 12 years, four years more than the deal the parties had struck.
Matlala would also remain unfit to possess a firearm.
Du Preez stressed that Matlala had not yet been sentenced, and that it was now for the parties to decide whether they accepted the term he considered just.
"It must be noted, the accused is not sentenced to this," he said.
He said that if Matlala, his two companies and the state agreed, he would convict and sentence him accordingly, and that if they did not, Matlala would be entitled to withdraw his guilty plea.
The magistrate then postponed the matter for 30 minutes for the parties to consider their position.
The ruling followed a dramatic start to proceedings, when Matlala terminated the services of his lawyer, Advocate Hlawu Maluleke.
Advocate Anneline van den Heever took over the corruption case and asked for a short consultation with her client, which Du Preez granted.
Matlala pleaded guilty on Thursday last week to seven counts of fraud, corruption and money laundering linked to a SA Police Service health tender awarded to his company, Medicare24 Tshwane District.
The deal was negotiated with the National Prosecuting Authority's Investigating Directorate Against Corruption over about two months.
He admitted paying more than R300,000 in bribes to Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, a police forensic services official who was in a romantic relationship with him and who referred SAPS members to his company for medical screening.
The tender was advertised at about R360m but was awarded to his company for about R228 million, and was cancelled in May 2025 after an internal audit flagged irregularities.
By then, his company had been paid about R50m.
Matlala was one of 17 people originally charged in the matter.
His co-accused include a dozen senior police officers, Medicare24 managing director James Murray, and suspended national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola, whose case was postponed to August 28.
Matlala, a security boss from Mamelodi, has become a central figure in the scandal over alleged criminal infiltration of the police, which is the subject of the Madlanga commission.
He is being held as a high-risk inmate at the C-Max section of the Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre, and faces a separate trial on 25 charges, including 11 counts of attempted murder.
***This story has been updated to reflect the postponement of the matter to Monday, July 13.
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