By Thapelo Molefe
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson has terminated a lease agreement with Medicare 24 Tshwane District, a company linked to controversial businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, after an internal investigation found that the deal could not legally take effect and may have bypassed basic governance requirements.
The lease, concluded in December 2023, relates to a hospital facility in Pretoria West and was cancelled with immediate effect on Friday, following mounting allegations aired in Parliament and detailed by a South African media investigation.
At the centre of the matter is a critical procedural failure: the property was never declared surplus by the South African Police Service (SAPS), which remains the lawful designated user of the facility under the Government Immovable Asset Management Act of 2007.
Without such a declaration, any lease agreement is legally invalid.
“The lease agreement could not lawfully come into operation,” the Department of Public
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