Factions shred police as Commissioner Masemola faces criminal charges tied to ‘Cat’ Matlala

Already mired in unprecedented levels of dysfunction, the South African Police Service faces further turmoil as National Commissioner Fannie Masemola, the nation’s highest-ranking officer, faces criminal prosecution.

For months, suspicions have been mounting that Masemola will find himself in a courtroom dock on corruption charges.

When claims surfaced last year that Masemola would be arrested, he dismissed them as “a deliberate effort by certain politicians to discredit me and cast doubt on my integrity”.

But on Wednesday, 25 March, national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed that Masemola had been served with a notice to appear in court on 21 April.

‘Pledged his cooperation’

Mathe told journalists, “General Masemola remains fully committed to upholding the rule of law and integrity of the office he serves. He has taken note of the charges brought against him, and he has pledged his full cooperation with all lawful processes.”

It was not immediately clear what charges he faced.

When Masemola is officially charged, he will join the ranks of former police boss Jackie Selebi, who went on to become a convict, and former acting police boss Khomotso Phahlane, who has denied criminal accusations against him.

Masemola faces charges connected to a dodgy R360-million police tender awarded two years ago to Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s company Medicare 24 Tshwane District.

While Masemola previously acknowledged “red flags” around it, he said he had not received money from Matlala in relation to the tender, which was for the provision of services dealing with ill-health-induced retirement, wellness screenings and medical assessments before employment.

Twelve South African Police Service (SAPS) officers, along with Matlala and his business associate James Murray, were arrested in connection with the tender on Tuesday.

They appeared in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday on charges including fraud, corruption and contravening the Public Finance Management Act.

The tender was allegedly rigged via a collusive scheme involving police officers and Matlala’s Medicare 24.

Matlala, who is accused in another case of attempted murder, is a pivotal figure in South Africa’s law enforcement scandal and is viewed as having corrupted several officers.

Certain police members have also pointed to him as being part of a drug cartel that has infiltrated the State.

Ramaphosa reacts

Masemola is now connected to Matlala via the pending criminal charges linked to the tender.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Presidency said, “President Ramaphosa will be addressing the matter concerning General Masemola in accordance with the law. The President, working together with the Minister of Police, is committed to ensuring that the SAPS remains stable and able to continue fulfilling its policing mandate.”

The looming criminal charges against Masemola represent the latest in a series of crippling setbacks for South African law enforcement over the last eight months. In that time, the country’s entire policing landscape has changed, with suspensions, investigations, accusations and counter-allegations cutting through it.

Divided

The crisis erupted in July last year when KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that a drug cartel had infiltrated the country’s criminal justice system, politics and private security.

Matala is accused of being a member of this cartel.

Two hearings — the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and the ad hoc committee in Parliament — have been investigating Mkhwanazi’s accusations.

The hearings have heard from many witnesses implicated and connected to his accusations.

So far, two main narratives have emerged from their collective testimony.

One is that Mkhwanazi is an honest whistleblower acting in the interests of national security. The other is that Mkhwanazi is a crook pretending to be a whistleblower while concealing crime, including the looting of the Crime Intelligence unit’s secret fund.

These two contradictory narratives also seem to signify two rival law enforcement factions.

Idac and the arrests

Mkhwanazi and Masemola seem to be on the same side, along with national Crime Intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo.

This is where the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) fits in.

Idac carried out the arrests on Tuesday of the 12 police officers accused in the Matlala Medicare 24 tender saga, for which Masemola is now also expected to face charges.

Last year, in the run-up to Mkhwanazi making his staggering cartel infiltration claims, Idac also arrested Khumalo and six of his Crime Intelligence colleagues.

Read more: Mkhwanazi alleges SA’s new capture — malicious corruption-busters and classified intelligence leaks

They face corruption charges over an allegedly irregular appointment and have denied wrongdoing.

Mkhwanazi has insinuated that certain figures in Crime Intelligence are working against Khumalo. (Mkhwanazi made it clear last week when testifying more broadly in Parliament that he had doubts about Feroz Khan, who heads Counter and Security Intelligence.)

He also believes that Khumalo, through his Idac arrest, was framed to impede Crime Intelligence investigations into suspects, including those linked to the cartel that has allegedly infiltrated law enforcement.

‘Malicious structure’ and a denial

This all suggests that Mkhwanazi believes elements in Idac and Crime Intelligence are conspiring against certain police officers, including Khumalo.

When testifying before Parliament’s ad hoc committee, Mkhwanazi alleged that sources told him: “There are activities that are happening in the Idac that are not in line with what the purpose of the formation of the entity is, and that there are two structures in Idac.

“There’s a good structure that is dealing with the Zondo Commission [that investigated State Capture], and there’s another structure that is malicious that is used as a weapon to further disrupt the criminal justice operations.”

However, Idac head Andrea Johnson testified that there was “no truth to the allegation” that the Idac was involved in a “witch-hunt” against certain police officers.

She admitted that her husband was a Crime Intelligence officer, but said they never discussed work.

If Mkhwanazi’s previous stances about questionable elements in Idac and Crime Intelligence are applied to Masemola’s pending criminal charges, then it may seem that Masemola is also a target of those alleged elements.

‘Misrepresentation and bid fronting’

The Medicare 24 tender, though, was awarded in June 2024, when Masemola was national police commissioner.

Masemola, according to a summary of the ad hoc proceedings recorded by Parliament, did not sign off on the contract.

He said: “The contract is signed by the divisional commissioner supply chain, as far as I remember, and the service level agreement was signed by the Deputy National Commissioner for support services, Lieutenant General [Lineo] Nkhuoa.”

In a statement in October 2025 to Parliament’s ad hoc committee, Masemola said that a few months after the tender was awarded, the police minister at the time, Senzo Mchunu, raised concerns and requested that it be reviewed.

(Mchunu was placed on leave because of accusations he faces, which he has denied, in this scandal.)

Masemola had instructed “a thorough audit of the contract”.

He said: “The preliminary audit report […] dated 30 January 2025, highlighted red flags regarding the bid evaluation process and the eventual award of the contract.”

The “red flags” included that “the bid evaluation committee lacked the appropriate skill and competence to evaluate the bid”.

According to Masemola’s statement, there was also “evidence of misrepresentation of facts and bid fronting in the bid documents”.

This is roughly what the 12 senior police officers were arrested for on Tuesday.

‘I didn’t receive money from Matlala’

Last year, Masemola asked Medicare 24 to provide reasons why the SAPS should not terminate the contract, but it ended up being terminated anyway.

Masemola said that reasons for this included that “Medicare 24 misled the SAPS about the company’s actual operational and corporate structure.”

When he was testifying in Parliament earlier this month, it was put to him that ANC-aligned businessman Brown Mogotsi alleged that Masemola received money from Matlala that was linked to the Medicare 24 tender.

Masemola countered: “I didn’t receive any money from Mr Matlala.”

‘Deliberate effort to discredit me’

There is an ironic element to Masemola now having to appear in court next month.

This is because of the rumours that have done the rounds that he was set to be arrested — by Idac, the very unit that on Tuesday detained the 12 police officers in the new Medicare 24 case.

Idac, of course, also detained Khumalo and the Crime Intelligence officers last year, which Mkhwanazi insinuated was to frame Khumalo.

Masemola said that in May last year, a couple of months before Mkhawanzi’s police-altering press conference, “Stories began to appear in the media that Idac was about to arrest me and that a warrant of arrest had been issued authorising my arrest.

“It was even reported that Idac was in my office in Pretoria and I was shivering with fear”, or words to a similar effect.

“This event never happened. However, the story received publicity for some days.”

In June, just before Mkhwanazi’s press conference, stories about Masemola’s apparent “imminent arrest” resurfaced.

Masemola told the ad hoc committee, “The question, however, begs to be asked: Who would spread such a false story and what would be the intention?

“I can only speculate on the sources of the story, but I have no doubt that the intention was to discredit me and to undermine my integrity.”

Legitimate smear campaigns, as well as empty claims of such, have for decades marred policing and intelligence structures in South Africa.

These usually intensify during periods of State Capture. DM