A former decorated police brigadier who resigned three weeks before a R360m SAPS health services tender was awarded to Medicare24 Tswane – a little-known company controlled by Vusimusi Cat Matlala – is now in business with the firm she helped appoint.
Petunia Lenono, the former section head for psychology services, was a member of the bid evaluation committee which examined Medicare’s submission, recommended the appointment of Matlala’s company and now works for him as a consultant, reports News24.
Medicare24 Tswane, founded by Matlala in 2019 with a registered address at a Boksburg strip, pipped JSE-listed insurer Metropolitan for the substantial police tender.
When the three-year deal was awarded in June 2024, Matlala was a central figure in parallel corruption probes by both the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and Hawks into Tembisa Hospital contracts worth R2.3bn.
Matlala was linked to three shell companies in a suspicious multimillion-rand trade with Tembisa Hospital, which was red-flagged by Gauteng Health Department whistleblower Babita Deokaran before her assassination.
Within six months of landing the police tender, Matlala’s home and business premises were raided after he emerged as a person of interest in the dramatic kidnapping of a Pretoria businessman’s wife and nine-year-old son. He was questioned and has not been charged.
On the same day that News24 revealed Matlala’s company had landed the deal, he resigned as director and appointed a 29-year-old employee in his place as a proxy. On paper, she appears to be the controlling mind of the entity, but Matlala admitted she was a mere placeholder, raising the spectre of fronting.
On the bid documents submitted by Matlala, he used the e-mail address falconcatsuppliers@gmail.com.
Falcon Cat Trading and Suppliers was one of the three shell companies linked to Matlala that was used to bid for contracts from Tembisa Hospital for the supply of medical equipment.
His other apparent shell companies were Black AK Trading and Suppliers and Cor Kabeng Trading and Suppliers. All barring Black AK remain in business, and this specific entity has fallen dormant nearly three years after the SIU and Hawks investigations into Tembisa Hospital procurement began.
Decorated officer
News24 understands Lenono, in her time with the police, was a decorated officer with three medals conferred. She was also trotted out for TV interviews and events.
In Matlala’s bid submission, he declared he had no relationship with “any person” employed by the procuring entity.
Furthermore, he declared, “there have been no consultations, communications, agreements or arrangements made by the bidder with any official of the procuring institution”.
The police, through several spokespeople, refused to make public bid documents related to the tender, nor would they divulge how much Medicare had been paid since the award.
Both Lenono and Matlala vehemently asserted the awarding of the tender had been above board, that Lenono was merely one among many on the panel that evaluated the tender, and that their business relationship was only born after she left the police.
Lenono said the first time she met Medicare was several months after her committee sat during a site inspection of the business.
She and Matlala were introduced through a mutual friend in January this year, she claimed, and had yet to be officially appointed as a consultant.
“To date, no appointment contract has been finalised between Medicare24 and Ms Lenono,” she said, referring to herself in the third person. She also was adamant she had not yet been paid for any of her services.
This despite her assigned Medicare email address.
She said that her resignation and its timing around the award of the tender were merely a coincidence.
Matlala denied any impropriety, saying scrutiny of the tender award and his business relationship with Lenono was “vindictive”.
He said Medicare in no way influenced the awarding of the tender through promises of business and subcontracts.
"The committee consisted of more than 20 high-ranking officials, whereby we were scrutinised over a period of two days, and the full awarding process took more than three months, including adjudication."
Under terms of the tender, Medicare is to provide various health services for the police’s 180 000-strong workforce, including health risk management, injury on duty assessments, wellness screenings and so on.
It is a critical service which the police have long outsourced. Medical assessments of police recruits are conducted when they leave the training college for deployment, and similarly, assessments are crucial when officers retire or are medically boarded after injuries on duty.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe would not answer detailed questions about Lenono and the tender award.
She said Lenono was no longer an employee of the police.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Tembisa Hospital tender tycoon landed R360m SAPS contract
Tembisa tender tycoon now under scrunity over blue-lights cavalcade
Uncovering the 200 suspicious Tembisa Hospital contracts flagged by Deokaran