Cat Matlala’s plans for political control followed the State Capture playbook

As Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala appeared in court on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, testimony at the Madlanga Commission has shown how tender kingpins cultivate politicians – with access, luxury and cash – to capture the state from the inside.

The image below represents the potential risk of the criminalisation of the state, first exposed by News24 and now being ventilated at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System.

In it, the tender kingpin Edwin Sodi, a key figure in State Capture networks, is enjoying his 50th birthday party.

At his table is Matlala, the 49-year-old now in jail on charges including attempted murder and on Wednesday charged with 12 others for fraud, corruption and money-laundering in relation to a R360-million police tender riddled with malfeasance.

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Standing near Sodi is Keith Khoza, the political adviser to Deputy President Paul Mashatile. Many other politicians attended the party, according to this report.

What the table reveals is how close tender kingpins got to the political kingdom. This week, the Madlanga Commission heard a final day of testimony from Sergeant Fannie Nkosi, the police bagman who was a lynchpin of the “Big Five” cartel.

The Big Five are the crime lords named by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in July 2025, exposing infiltration of the criminal justice system.

Sodi can’t afford another party like this one after SARS tax compliance actions against him; he is also facing longstanding charges related to alleged corruption in a R255-million asbestos roofing contract in the Free State.

The Sodi network was one of the first long-tail investigations at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, which revealed sub-national or provincial capture when Ace Magashule was Free State premier.

Now in jail facing attempted murder as well as fraud and corruption charges, Matlala is also down on his luck.

This week, Nkosi linked Matlala to Mashatile, a claim the deputy president’s spokesperson Khoza quickly refuted, as Vincent Cruywagen reported in Daily Maverick.

But note how close and comfortable Khoza looked at the table. We asked him about the image and whether Mashatile had ever met Matlala.

“The DP [deputy president] does not know Mr Matlala and has never had contact with him. With regards to me, I don’t know him at all. We happened to be at the same party where there were many people I did not know, including him. I only saw this picture when the media showed it. At the party, I never interacted with him or sat with him. Even in the picture, I was talking to Edwin, not him,” said Khoza.

What the image confirms is how tender kingpins like Sodi, the Guptas, the Bosasa network of the Watson family and Angelo Aggrizzi, and now Matlala, cultivate political sponsors through giving them access to a lifestyle they cannot afford. Mashatile enjoyed lux holidays at Sodi’s beachfront properties before the tender kingpin hit the skids.

At the table were other politicians, as News24 reported.

Anatomy of patronage

The Madlanga Commission has also shown how Matlala had already conquered the sub-national state and the ANC in particular. In North West, he had the ANC influencer Brown Mogotsi on his payroll.

The first tranche of testimony in the cross-examination of local party man Suleiman Carrim revealed money flows between him and Matlala, which the commission heard may involve money-laundering.

Matlala allegedly paid former police minister Bheki Cele in cash, and the former police minister also stayed at his luxury Menlyn penthouse apartment, testimony has revealed.

It’s a well-worn pattern, and Matlala was on his way up into the highest political ranks until investigative reports by News24 and Mkhwanazi’s bombshell gave the country a wake-up. The commission and parliamentary inquiry followed.

In patronage network theory, there is usually a controller who cultivates political elites to win contracts for rent extraction from the state. In the book, Shadow State, the Politics of State Capture, edited by Ivor Chipkin and Mark Swilling, the anatomy of a patronage network shows this structure.

Matlala was developing a capture network and aiming for national figures until he was stopped in his tracks. The commission, as well as the arrest of 12 figures in Matlala’s network, most of them in the police, show that what was under way was a deepening of capture.

After the entrenchment of patronage networks and State Capture, the next step is the criminalisation of the state, where crime networks infiltrate and take over key parts of the state. Consider it a kind of Gupta 2.0 of capture.

South Africa has come close, the Madlanga Commission is revealing. The big question is whether such infiltration has been disrupted. DM

We thank News24 for granting permission for the use of the image.