WhatsApp exchanges reveal Matlala, Maumela, Msibi financial links

For the first time on Tuesday, the Madlanga commission heard from Matlala how he was connected to Maumela and how his business relationship with Msibi developed into a personal one, in which he even advised the taxi boss on a gift to buy for his partner.

Msibi is reported to have been the president of the “Big Five” cartel, and he and Matlala are said to have engaged in tender fraud.

Maumela is linked to the Tembisa Hospital R2bn tender corruption scandal as the alleged head of one of three syndicates that irregularly secured more than R400m in fraudulent hospital contracts.

One of the crucial messages concerned a R3m proof of payment (POP) that he had sent to Msibi. The POP had “M Maumela” as the reference and was from a person known as Agrippa Khoza. Matlala claimed not to recall the significance of sending the POP.

Commissioner Adv Sesi Baloyi found it unbelievable that Matlala would not remember such an amount for a transaction he claimed to be not involved in.

“Mr Matlala, the difficulty is, it’s a lot of money that is involved here, and I said to you ... unless you were in a business of forwarding notifications of many businesses and it was what you used to do as a matter of course then perhaps there is room to forgive that you do not remember,” she said.

“Because it is this amount and it’s people you know, it’s very difficult to accept that you have absolutely no recollection of it, where it came from and what it was about. You say you don’t remember, and you say you may have had someone ask you to forward it. It’s difficult to believe that is a complete and truthful answer. It’s unbelievable, I must say,” Baloyi said.

Matlala maintained that he did not recall why he sent the notification, adding that he wouldn’t say he was shocked by the payments as he had dealt with large transactions before.

He confirmed that both Msibi and Maumela knew each other through him and that, at some point, Maumela wanted to buy a vehicle from Msibi.

He told the commission that while Maumela was his friend, he also knew Msibi because he provided security for him through his company, Cat VIP Protection. He said Msibi referred to him as his son.

In relations to Tembisa Hospital corruption, the Special Investigating Unit has traced 41 suppliers or service providers linked to Maumela; three of the companies awarded contracts valued at R13.5m in this syndicate are linked to Matlala.

Earlier, Matlala said he met Maumela around 2015, and they became friends because of their shared passion for sports cars. “I used to like his car, and he liked mine,” he said, adding that they used to meet at a restaurant in Sandton.

Matlala said that in about 2018 and 2019, they started participating in business ventures in which they would share 10% of the profits of their investments.

Explaining their business model, Matlala said: “[When] Mr Maumela and I wanted to supply medical consumables to the department of health, we would approach someone who supplies consumables and tell them we would put money upfront in his account.