PRETORIA - Alleged underworld figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala has detailed his relationship with Hangwani Maumela, a central figure in the alleged looting of Tembisa Hospital.
Matlala told the Madlanga Commission that their shared passion for luxury sports cars brought them together in 2015 or 2016.
“We both have a passion for sports cars,” he told the Madlanga Commission.
“There is a restaurant in Sandton that we both frequented. We used to meet each other there. I liked his car, and that’s how we started our relationship.”
He conceded that he and Maumela were friends and said they later entered a joint business venture, pooling funds and sharing profits from government tenders they secured.
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Asked by evidence leader Advocate Sello Mahlape SC whether they had any other relationship that allowed them to benefit financially, Matlala said they did.
He told the commission that they were involved in a joint business venture in which they invested money and shared profits from government tenders they successfully secured.
Matlala did not list the projects they had secured, saying there were many.
However, he said the contracts were from the Gauteng Department of Health, with the first Request for Quotation (RFQ) issued in 2018.
He said his summaries of various successful RFQs amounted to about R5-million over three years.
Explaining how their financial arrangements worked, Matlala said: “We opened a neutral company and had money in the bank for that specific business. We pooled funds together, and from those funds, if we got a contract, each one would take money for that purpose.”
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Describing their profit-sharing arrangement, Matlala said each would receive a 10 percent share of the amount taken from the fund for a supplier deal.
“If you are a supplier and we need to buy stock from your company, we would put money into your company, take stock and you would tell us how much is left, and we would keep on adding money into that account,” Matlala explained.
An investigation by the Special Investigating Unit found that between R2-billion and R2.3-billion was allegedly siphoned from Tembisa Hospital’s budget through fraudulent contracts, shell companies and manipulated procurement processes. This included invoices allegedly being split to keep them below thresholds requiring higher-level approval.
The network linked to Maumela, including associated entities and suppliers, allegedly benefited from between R813-million and R820-million of the total misappropriated funds.
Matlala continues his testimony before the Madlanga Inquiry.
Read more: Matlala denies close ties with other cartel suspects