Investigations have revealed that security boss and Tembisa Hospital tenderpreneur Vusimuzi Matlala, whose home and office were raided by police last week apparently in connection with a kidnapping, had bagged himself a R360m health services contract from SAPS.
News24 reports that a company called Medicare 24 Tswane District – of which Matlala is the sole director – was awarded the lucrative three-year deal in June last year to render “health risk management” services.
This would include screening thousands of police officers for temporary incapacity leave, ill-health retirement, injury on duty assessments, wellness screening and medical surveillance.
Matlala’s new business boom came while he was a central figure in a nearly R3bn Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe of dubious Tembisa Hospital contracts, in parallel with a sweeping Hawks fraud and corruption investigation.
Through two little-known entities he steers, Black AK Trading and Suppliers and Cor Kabeng Trading and Suppliers, Matlala was connected to syndicate activity at the hospital.
While the SIU in 2022 said it would refer Matlala and Black AK to the National Prosecuting Authority for possible prosecution on fraud charges for allegedly supplying fake bid documents, the police – driving their own inquiry – pumped his bank account full of cash.
This as both Matlala’s home and business premises were raided by SAPS last week, apparently linked to a kidnapping.
New boon
Medicare 24 Tswane District was registered by Matlala in 2019, the firm allegedly operating an office and medical practice in Boksburg, Johannesburg. Bid award documents published by the police in June confirm Matlala’s company was the only successful bidder for 19/1/9/1/94TP (23).
The deal, worth R360m over a period of three years, is to provide all manner of health services to the police’s 180 000-strong workforce.
This was not his first foray into the state procurement space.
The 48-year-old businessman first indirectly appeared on Deokaran’s radar in August 2021 when she flagged goods and services contracts directed to Black AK and Cor Kabeng.
The entities were among 217 companies she identified for further investigation after finding anomalous spending patterns at the Ekurhuleni hospital.
Three weeks after calling for detailed scrutiny of transactions worth R850m and halting R100m in outgoing payments, Deokaran was killed.
Her call for an investigation died with her, and stalled payments were released. Matlala remained the lone director of both entities which are now in the deregistration process, according to CIPC documents.
Scandal
A News24 investigation, drawn from 60 000 Gauteng Health Department emails and a forensic image of Deokaran’s phone, revealed how she had unearthed the first shades of the public procurement scandal.
News24 traced nearly R5m paid to Matlala’s companies in just one month for the supply of medical goods.
Both Black AK and Cor Kabeng were registered within a day of one another in May 2017.
Neither has a public-facing presence through a website or social media pages. Both list their trading address as a house in Mamelodi East, Pretoria.
More than 900 pages of bid documents, obtained by News24 through the disciplinary process of Tembisa Hospital staff, revealed how the SIU justified a criminal referral for fraud.
Latest raid
Last week, police descended on the offices of Matlala’s security company, spokesperson Mike van Wyk told News24.
Matlala is an active director of CAT Protection and Security and CAT VIP Holdings, and although it is unclear which of these entities was raided, CCTV footage shows a group of police officers, some heavily armed and clad in camouflage, storming the offices.
“There is much confusion …No one can tell us why these raids are happening, either the one today or the one at his house last week,” Van Wyk said.
He claimed the police would not supply Matlala with warrants, and there was uncertainty over what matter the raids were linked to.
“First, he was accused of kidnapping, and then he was accused of having contacts in the SAPS. We don’t know.”
He said that the raids were unlawful and were being challenged in an urgent court bid, expected to be heard shortly.
On the SAPS tender, questions were put to Matlala via Van Wyk, but no response had been received at the time of publishing.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the SAPS tender was awarded in a public process and would not be drawn to answer specific questions.
“According to the division of supply chain management, the supplier does not appear on the list of restricted suppliers published by the National Treasury,” she added.
“SAPS is unable to disclose the amount paid to the service provider to date. and cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.”
She would not comment on whether the contract or its award were under investigation.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Tembisa tender tycoon now under scrutiny over blue-lights cavalcade
Three companies score R100m contracts, latest Tembisa exposé shows
Uncovering the 200 suspicious Tembisa Hospital contracts flagged by Deokaran