By Johnathan Paoli
Tenderpreneur and attempted murder accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala on Thursday claimed that several WhatsApp messages and voice notes presented as evidence against him at Parliament’s ad hoc committee and the Madlanga Commission were “manipulated.”
The claim became a central point of contention as evidence leader and senior counsel Norman Arendse continued his examination of Matlala’s relationships with senior police officials and his knowledge of alleged criminal networks.
Tension rose when Arendse read from WhatsApp messages purportedly exchanged between Matlala and alleged political fixer and middleman, Brown Mogotsi.
Matlala repeatedly disputed that most of the conversations were attributed to him, stressing that the content had been altered.
“I have to account for messages I don’t even know how they have got here. This thing has been tampered with, that is a fact,” Matlala said.
He said the screenshots were fabricated and that certain phrases, particularly those referring to him as “Dlamini”, were artificially inserted.
Matlala claims that he does not speak Afrikaans or refer to himself in the third person, as some messages appear to show.
Questioned further by MPs, Matlala said the WhatsApp records had been extracted from his own device but manipulated afterwards.
He accused the South African Police Service (SAPS) of altering the data to “plant evidence”.
His claim extended beyond text messages.
He told the committee that voice notes played during the Madlanga Commission were also digitally altered.
Arendse challenged Matlala over his network of relationships within SAPS leadership, including interactions with former national commissioner Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya, KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Lesetja Senona, and former police minister Bheki Cele.
Matlala rejected the notion that this made him well-connected, arguing that businesspeople often interact with high-ranking officials without engaging in corruption.
Throughout the session, Arendse pressed the inconsistency between Matlala’s claims of manipulation and his earlier acknowledgments that some messages were authentic.
Still, Matlala maintained that key digital evidence had been doctored, and that this manipulation formed the core of what he described as an attempt by police to falsely implicate him.
The committee continues.
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