SAPS senior says money received from Matlala was romantic gifting

A senior police official who claims she was in a romantic relationship with suspected crime boss Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala said the money she received from him was not a bribe but romantic gifts.

Section head for quality management at the South African Police Service (SAPS) Rachel Matjeng testified before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry on Thursday.

ALSO READ: SAPS senior was romantically involved with Matlala, Madlanga Commission hears

Her testimony focused on the irregular R360 million tender that was awarded to a company linked to Matlala for the provision of health services.

It was revealed before the commission that Matjeng received over R300,000 from Matlala a few months after his company got the multimillion-rand tender.

However, Matjeng said that she played no role in the tender being awarded to Matlala and disclosed to her superiors her relationship with the businessman.

“I further asked if I should recuse myself from the responsibility of managing the medical surveillance and biological monitoring programme. Major General Manamela indicated that this is part of my scope of work and [I] cannot relegate that responsibility.”

Commissioner Mbuyiseli Madlanga said it was very strange that there were no terms of endearment in any of the WhatsApp messages between Matlala and Matjeng.

“As romantically involved people, did you and Mr Matlala have any terms of endearment like love, babe, hun, etc?”

Matjeng replied, “Yes commissioner, I’m not a romantic person. I’m not into calling people honey, love or whatever but I’ll give you a pet name. So, for him, I was calling him Mr V and from his side he was calling me ‘Diva’.”

Meanwhile, on Friday, controversial businessman Suliman Carrim is expected to take the witness stand before the commission after failing in his last-minute court bid overturned his subpoena.

Carrim, a staunch African National Congress (ANC) backer, is alleged to have used his political sway to swing the SAPS tender to Matlala’s company and received kickbacks.