Has Vusi ‘Cat’ Matlala run out of lives? Jeff Wicks on his arrest and tender trouble

Loading player...
He is languishing in a prison cell for an attempted hit on his former lover, and now the walls are closing in on tender don, Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala, for a now cancelled R360-million SAPS health services tender allegedly unduly awarded to his company, Medicare 24 Tshwane District in 2024. Matlala’s bail proceedings on Monday in connection with allegedly orchestrating the failed attempt on actress Tebogo Thobejane’s life in 2023 have been postponed to 30 May. In the meantime, officials with the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) are delving into the legalities of the allegedly corrupt police tender that saw R18.5 million paid into the Cat’s accounts, despite his company’s “sustained underperformance”. News24 investigative journalist, Jeff Wicks, has been on the Cat’s tail for months now: “This is a tender process perverted. What this really shows is a patent lack of due diligence and now there must be accountability”. You can read his full article here. Later in the show, host Graeme Raubenheimer catches us up on an Eastern Cape coastal town’s fight against sand mining. And finally, an early Winter cold front promises a dusting of snow on our mountaintops this week. Mail your comments and voice notes to thelead@24.com. Editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.  
19 May English South Africa News · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Streets of sewage and a ray of light in Krugersdorp, with Sikonathi Mantshantsha

In 2024, News24’s Waste Land exposé uncovered the source of the Gauteng West Rand’s unbearable smell: the old Percy Stewart Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was illegally dumping untreated, heavily polluted water into the Blougatspruit, which feeds into the Hartbeespoort Dam downstream. This raw sewage, seeping into crucial water sources, farms and…
12 Jun 34 min

Wouter Basson vs HPCSA round two, with Tammy Petersen

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) continues in 2025 to push for some form of historical accountability from “Dr Death” Wouter Basson’s involvement in the apartheid government’s secret chemical and biological warfare programme, “Project Coast”. But as News24’s Cape Town journalist Tammy Petersen reports in this edition of…
11 Jun 21 min

The bloody diamond war in Namaqualand with Jacques Pauw (special edition)

For decades, the forgotten, desolate sands of the coastal Namaqualand region of the Northern Cape have offered both illicit diggers and influential tycoons a chance at the big time. The promise of still-hidden diamonds beneath the hot soil has recently attracted all walks of life to a region whose people…
10 Jun 40 min

Meet the Jozi broker who disappeared with millions from friends, family and clients

A “smooth talker” who plied clients with fantastic food and drink, convincing many into handing over their precious millions, only to evade questions when it was time to cough up. This is how numerous clients described the elusive Johannesburg investment broker, Mark Kretzschmar, to News24.Tonight in The Lead, News24 Business journalist…
9 Jun 30 min

Has the NPA messed up again? Karyn Maughan on why Ace Magashule’s PA walked free

She’s a free woman. Moroadi Cholota, the former assistant to then-Free State Premier Ace Magashule, has won her special plea against the National Prosecuting Authority. The Free State High Court in Bloemfontein declared her extradition from the United States “unlawful” following a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that only the justice…
5 Jun 34 min