Illustrative Image: Mark Lifman. (Photo: Gallo Images / Jaco Marais) | Medicare24 CEO, Mike Van Wyk. (Image: X / eNCA) | SAPS logo. (Image: Wikicommons) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) When Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s business associate, Mike van Wyk, did not appear as a witness before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry last week, it seemed the public would be left in the dark about how he fits in to it all.
Instead, his absence illuminated avenues that the commission has not yet explored, including what appears to have been an attempted hit on a logistics company manager.
The commission also heard for the first time on Monday, 22 June 2026, that Van Wyk had previously been involved with mining boss George van der Merwe, once the general manager at the Optimum Coal Mine.
Van Der Merwe was not accused of any wrongdoing or criminality during the proceedings, and it is unclear if the commission will approach him for information.
Mention of his name, though, has brought into focus friction in South Africa’s mining sector that overlaps with private security.
Van Wyk was to have testified before the Madlanga Commission last Monday, but it emerged that he was medically unfit to do so after undergoing panic attacks.
Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson SC, however, proceeded with reading through relevant documents and messages, to which Van Wyk will have an opportunity to respond.
One of the commission’s focal points last Monday was a video that Matlala allegedly sent to Van Wyk, who denied receiving it.
The video showed cocaine bricks being weighed on an electronic scale, which Chaskalson said suggested that the pair were involved in drug dealings.
Who’s who
Van Wyk founded the company Medicare 24 Holdings and Public.
He previously initiated contact with Matlala about Medicare matters, and this resulted in Matlala creating the entity Medicare 24 Tshwane District.
Matlala is now facing criminal charges and accusations that he’s a member of a drug cartel, known as the Big Five, that has allegedly infiltrated South Africa’s criminal justice sector, policing and politics.
Matlala also faces accusations of corrupting key police officers – last week, he pleaded guilty in a related case.
The dodgy policing tender
In 2024, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s company, Medicare 24 Tshwane District, was controversially awarded a R228-million policing tender, which is now the centre of a court case. Matlala pleaded guilty. Twelve senior police officers and suspended national police commissioner Fannie Masemola face charges in the matter. Van Wyk has been referred to in this case, but is not criminally charged, suggesting he is helping authorities to build their case.
This – the alleged infiltration of law enforcement – is what the Madlanga Commission is investigating.
As for Van Der Merwe, his past links to the Optimum Coal Mine connect him to the Guptas, who owned it.
The Gupta brothers stand accused of being at the core of State Capture in South Africa when Jacob Zuma was president.
Private security
Van Wyk and Matlala were also involved in private security.
Matlala’s company, Cat Protection and Security (Pty) Ltd, sparked an intense crackdown on the sector.
Van Wyk previously headed the company Anubis Protection Services.
Anubis has been referred to in the Madlanga Commission.
Suspended Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi previously testified about his dealings with Van Wyk and Matlala – this evidence links to Anubis.
Mkhwanazi confirmed he had accepted money from Matlala and said Van Wyk often communicated on Matlala’s behalf.
Private (in)security
Sidelined national Crime Intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo previously testified before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry that to climb the ranks, Big Five cartel members recruited criminal justice officials. He explained that as a secondary step in the cartel, members registered businesses. Khumalo had said: “In most cases, it’s private security companies that are the initial businesses for the members of the cartel that have just joined. There are lots of reasons for that, including access to firearms.”
Among the issues Mkhwanazi acknowledged was an “agreement between EMPD and Medicare Emergency Medical Services/Anubis Protection Services, duly represented by Mike van Wyk.”
A memorandum of understanding involving those entities also said “we will be permitted to use blue and red lights to respond for and on behalf of EMPD. The cost of this will be for Medicare 24/Anubis Protection Services.”
This suggests overlaps between Van Wyk’s Medicare 24 and Anubis, and that he wanted these companies to be afforded some EMPD privileges.
The mining ‘link’
Sections of a statement that Van Wyk made earlier were read out during the Madlanga Commission proceedings last Monday.
One said: “I have had previous business relations with George van der Merwe, which related to Close Protection Services, which was not a constructive business relation and which I terminated.”
This implies that Van Wyk’s private security ties connected him to Van Der Merwe.
/file/attachments/orphans/SslW1Gu9_704901_838748.jpg "George van der Merwe (Photo: X / @City_Press)")
A video was also aired during last week’s Madlanga Commission proceedings showing Van Wyk introducing Mkhwanazi, seated alongside him, to a client of his named George, who was not present.
In the video, Van Wyk suggested Mkhwanazi and George meet in person, for reasons including that George’s “transport problems can be sorted out”.
It emerged during the Madlanga Commission proceedings that “George” was Van Der Merwe.
Chaskalson was keen to find out what the introduction between Mkhwanazi and Van Der Merwe “was designed to achieve”.
The shooting
Messages that Van Wyk sent to Matlala in February 2025 were also read out during last week’s Madlanga Commission proceedings.
One said: “This guy also had issues with George.”
The Madlanga Commission did not hear who this mention of George referred to.
After that message, Van Wyk sent a video to Matlala, which was screened during last week’s proceedings.
/file/attachments/orphans/vanwyk-analysis-caryn_592030.jpg "Mike van Wyk sent this video to Vusimuzi Matlala in February 2025. (Screenshot: Video Madlanga Commission of Inquiry)")
It showed a wounded man in a posh car with several bullet holes.
According to Chaskalson, the wounded man was Maxwell Mlangeni, the owner of a logistics company, who survived the shooting, which happened “relatively close to” the Optimum Coal Mine. (Chaskaslon did not suggest untoward links between the shooting and the mine.)
Chaskalson hoped to question Van Wyk on his messages to Matlala about the shooting and what he had meant by saying “this guy also had issues with George”.
‘Threats’ and denials
In an unrelated saga, Van Der Merwe was arrested in the Western Cape in February 2026 for allegedly threatening or intimidating another mining sector figure.
About a week later, the case was reportedly struck from the roll in Gauteng (presumably where complaints against him were made to police). Formal charges had not been put to Van Der Merwe.
Joe ‘Ferrari’ case
Another figure who has been mentioned before during the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry proceedings is taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni. Criminal charges now connect him to the mining sector. He is among the accused in a developing case in which it is alleged that between 2022 and 2025, he and the accused unlawfully demanded more than R2.2-million in protection fees from mining businessman Thengane Thomas Ntuli.
In a March 2026 interview with the Middelburg Observer, Van Der Merwe denied threatening anyone.
He also said: “The mining sector can be challenging and sometimes volatile.
“I have received threats in the past and have therefore employed security personnel.”
Meanwhile, a former associate of Van Der Merwe’s, Daniel McGowan of Liberty Coal, who, like him, had done business with the Guptas, had previously lodged a complaint with police against Van Der Merwe.
If anything, all this suggests tensions in the mining sector.
Murdered Mark Lifman
It is around here that things loop back to Mike van Wyk.
He previously confirmed to Daily Maverick that through the security industry, he knew Mark Lifman, one of the most prominent Western Cape-based organised crime suspects.
Daily Maverick previously put it to Van Wyk that claims (from sources operating in similar arenas) had been made that he once threatened Lifman.
Van Wyk denied this, saying that Lifman had helped him when a figure in the mining industry threatened him.
“When I was threatened by a mine person, he protected me a hundred percent,” Van Wyk had said.
“When he heard [about the threat], he jumped in and said, ‘Nobody’s going to touch you.’ He was a fair man.”
Lifman was murdered in a shooting in the Western Cape Town of George in November 2024.
Mark Lifman and the murders
At the time of his murder in November 2024, Mark Lifman was on trial in connection with the 2017 killing of Brian “Steroid King” Wainstein in the upmarket Cape Town suburb of Constantia. Lifman’s close associate, Andre Naude, also on trial in the Wainstein case, was killed in a shooting in Cape Town in June 2025.
Two suspects, with ties to private security, were arrested in connection with the Lifman killing and remain in custody.
According to some sources with knowledge of these arenas, in the run-up to his murder, Lifman had apparently threatened people connected to mining operations in Middelburg because he wanted to muscle into related business activities.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ED_416214-1-1.jpg "Mark Lifman at the Western Cape Division of the High Court in Cape Town on 21 October 2022. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)")
This has not been officially confirmed. Meanwhile, it appears that Lifman did have mining sector connections.
And now, through evidence emerging at the Madlanga Commission, aspects of this sector are being pushed closer to South Africa’s law enforcement scandal.
Van Wyk’s anticipated responses to questions that arose during his absence at the Madlanga Commission last week may shed more light on these matters. DM