By Johnathan Paoli
SAPS quality management section head Brigadier Rachel Matjeng has conceded that she facilitated meetings between her “boyfriend”, controversial health-services tender beneficiary Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, and former national police commissioner Johannes Khomotso “JK” Phahlane.
However, she insisted that her involvement stemmed from a personal relationship and not from any improper attempt to advance the interests of a service provider.
Appearing for her final day of testimony on Friday in front of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, Matjeng insisted that she did not play a central role in facilitating the meetings.
“They did meet several times, but they arranged their own meetings without me being involved,” she said.
Pressed early in her testimony on why Phahlane would use her as an intermediary when he had Matlala’s direct contact details, Matjeng said the former commissioner only reached out through her “when he was struggling to get hold of Mr Matlala”.
She acknowledged forwarding messages between the two men, including a 25 March 2025 text in which Phahlane asked for their scheduled meeting to be delayed.
“I was never part of any meeting between them. I only forwarded messages,” she insisted.
But evidence leader advocate Thabang Pooe argued that the WhatsApp exchanges showed far more than a passive go-between.
When asked on an exchange in which she alerted Matlala that “JK wants to meet up with you”; Matjeng confirmed she recognised Phahlane’s initials.
“He was my former boss… but not my friend,” she conceded.
The commission’s scrutiny intensified as it probed her romantic relationship with Matlala, which she again described as genuine.
She said she had “never been requested” to bring photographs proving the relationship, but volunteered to do so.
The messages, she argued, reflected everyday discussions between partners including weight-loss medications, social media gossip and logistics around meeting each other.
“I was asking him as a boyfriend for three pens of Ozempic. It assists with stabilising your sugar levels as well as weight loss…at least I was doing it the normal way. I did not go for BBL,” she testified.
She introduced the Brazilian butt-lift (BBL) issue unprompted, explaining: “They know there’s someone who got a BBL in SAPS. Now they’re trying to put a face to this BBL person, so it’s not this one.”
Despite her insistence that the relationship was personal, not transactional, the commission confronted her with messages that directly intersected with SAPS contract processes.
On 20 February 2025, following a call from Matlala, she sent him a list of 140 officers who had failed to attend medical surveillance appointments, “a list of no shows”, she wrote, addressing him as “Mr V”.
Matlala immediately asked for the code enabling him to claim payment for non-arrivals.
She confirmed she told him she would obtain it.
Commissioner Sesi Baloyi argued that this intervention helped Matlala get payment sooner than the normal process, allowing him to bypass checks that would ordinarily delay claims.
“You inserted yourself into something that has nothing to do with your responsibilities. You were deliberately assisting him because of your relationship with him,” Baloyi said.
Matjeng rejected this: “No, no, commissioner, it’s not like that. I could have assisted any other service provider the same way. I’m a hands-on person.”
Still, she conceded she intervened because she believed Matlala’s claim was inflated at over 300 non-arrivals, and she wanted to “save the organisation” from fruitless expenditure.
“For me, what I did, I did to save the organisation,” she said, even though she acknowledged finance would automatically detect discrepancies.
On the collapse of Matlala’s lucrative SAPS health-services contract, Matjeng said she empathised with the organisation, not the tenderpreneur.
Yet WhatsApp messages show Matlala complaining bitterly.
When informed of the cancellation, he wrote: “That’s bad very bad, I’ve invested a lot of money here now it’s gone, more than 30 million rands.”
In another message about SAPS’ warning letter, he said: “Sorry they cancelled the contract, I didn’t take the money.”
Matjeng told the commission she and Matlala met almost every day before his May 2025 arrest for the attempted murder of ex-girlfriend Tebogo Thobejane.
Days before his arrest, he sent her a location because they were meant to meet at the same hotel, she noted, where he said he was meeting former police minister Bheki Cele.
She insisted she never asked what the meeting was about.
The inquiry continues after having adjourned for lunch.
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