By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The underworld kingpin Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his four co-accused have pleaded not guilty to a combined 25 criminal charges against them, as the trial begins at the Johannesburg High Court.
Matlala, his wife Tsakani Matlala, Tiego Floyd Mabusela, Musa Kekana, and Nthabiseng Nzama face charges arising from three separate botched assassination attempts carried out between August 2022 and January 2024.
The trial, which was expected to start at 10am, only got going at about midday following a lengthy delay and a battle over the court diary.
Taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni, another targets, were also in court and was seen stepping out of the building during the morning’s delay.
It is the state’s case that the accused orchestrated three separate hit plots between August 2022 and January 2024, targeting Sibanyoni, Tebogo Thobejane and music producer Seunkie “DJ Vetteys” Mokubong.
State advocate Elize le Roux put the charges to the accused count by count, the first eight counts relate to the August 10 2022 shooting of Sibanyoni, who was wounded at the Centurion Golf Estate, with four other people shot at in the same attack.
Counts nine to 14 relate to the October 17 2023 shooting of Thobejane at a Johannesburg intersection, in which her friend Anele Alicia Malinga was wounded, with Tsakani charged as an accessory after the fact on those attempted murder counts.
The money laundering counts include an allegation that R20,000, described as a portion of the compensation to kill Thobejane, was transferred from Matlala’s business account into Nzama’s business account, with R15,000 then moved into Mabusela’s account.
The court heard the money laundering charges carry a fine of up to R100m or up to 30 years’ imprisonment.
The final counts relate to the alleged plot against Mokubong, including conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of attempted murder and the illegal possession of a 9mm pistol.
Counts one to eight and 19 to 25 were centralised to Johannesburg from the Pretoria jurisdiction on the national director of public prosecutions’ direction in October last year.
Before the accused could plead, the court first had to resolve a dispute over the trial dates after Kekana’s counsel, instructed by attorney Joe Strauss of Strauss de Waal Attorneys, said he was double-booked and unavailable from August 11 to 28.
Advocate Annelene van der Heever, for the Matlalas, argued that acting Judge William Karam’s order that the trial run uninterrupted from Monday until completion was binding and could not simply be ignored.
“A court order is a court order, my Lord,” she said.
Judge Cassim Moosa, however, found the court roll had set the matter down for 30 days and that a pause would not prejudice any party.
“The considered view of this court is that there shall be no prejudice suffered to any of the parties before it if this court were to lean in favour to grant the application by counsel for accused number one [Kekana],” he said.
“It is ordered that the trial in case number SS98-2025 shall commence today and shall continue uninterruptedly up until Friday, August 7.
“The trial shall then pause during the period Tuesday, August 11, up until Friday, August 28.”
The trial will resume on August 31 and run until September 18.
The trial comes after Matlala’s plea deal in his separate Pretoria fraud case, linked to a SAPS health services tender, collapsed and was declared null and void after he withdrew from it, with that matter postponed to September 11.
Meanwhile acting National Police Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane, has praised investigators for bringing three high-profile contract killing cases to trial, with Matlala among the accused.
Dimpane commended members of the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) and Gauteng Counter Intelligence Operations (GCI-OPS) for their relentless efforts in ensuring the matters reached the trial stage.