R700 000 in a Woolworths Bag at Menlyn Penthouse — Matlala Draft Affidavit Names Cele

A Menlyn Maine penthouse became the backdrop for one of South Africa’s most striking political corruption claims when Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala says he handed R700 000 in a Woolworths shopping bag to former police minister Bheki Cele in January 2025 — thirty days after a Political Killings Task Team raided his premises.

Matlala’s explosive draft affidavit, prepared while he sat behind bars during a proposed plea negotiation with the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, lays out a labyrinthine chain of alleged cash flows implicating Cele, former deputy national police commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, and former deputy public works minister Bernice Swarts. He reportedly agreed to hand Cele R1 million in total following that December 2024 operation, delivering the remaining R300 000 during a separate encounter in Durban. Matlala further alleges Cele subsequently floated the idea of buying a R6 million Trafalgar property and solicited funds for vehicle repairs — a request the businessman claims he rejected outright.

Swarts flatly denied ever meeting Matlala or facilitating his access to government-owned buildings. Cele acknowledged occupying the Menlyn penthouse at no cost but previously pushed back against any suggestion of receiving money. Crucially, the document carries no signature and its contents remain untested before any judicial officer, meaning no court has yet weighed the credibility of a single allegation against the three officials.

The affidavit traces its origins to Matlala’s two-year struggle to lock down a hospital lease at the SAPS Tshwane campus. Sibiya, he claims, brokered a 2023 introduction to Swarts at her official residence, where she allegedly pledged to unlock additional state-owned facilities through the Department of Public Works — a foothold that would position his firm, Medicare24, for National Health Insurance procurement. He claims he transferred R80 000 to Sibiya at OR Tambo International Airport, supposedly earmarked for a traditional ceremony, and later moved R200 000 connected to a lease agreement signed that December. Separate allegations detail fortnightly R50 000 deposits to SAPS employee Brian Neville Cartwright and multiple R500 000 tranches to Sibiya, plus the extraordinary provision of 20 live impalas to unnamed officials.

Detectives familiar with wildlife trafficking note that live game transfers between private parties and public servants carry a paper trail through provincial nature conservation registers — a thread investigators could pursue independent of the unsigned document.

The plea arrangement ultimately unravelled, leaving Matlala’s testimony in legal limbo alongside the R228 million already disbursed under the cancelled Medicare24 SAPS medical services contract. With no signed agreement, no court-tested evidence, and three officials maintaining their innocence, the central question haunting this case remains unanswered: who authorised the state to keep paying Medicare24 long after alarm bells rang?

https://x.com/i/status/2114316505949012286

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