Deputy President Paul Mashatile has categorically denied any connection to controversial businessman Vusimuzi Cat Matlala, following testimony at the #MadlangaCommission of Inquiry that suggested Matlala urgently needed his bank card ahead of a meeting with the deputy president Paul Mashatile and a General Shadrack official.
The denial came hours after Sergeant Fannie Nkosi of the Gauteng Organised Crime Unit testified that Matlala had phoned him demanding the return of his Luxor black bank card “urgently” because he had scheduled meetings with Mashatile and suspended Lieutenant-General Shadrack Sibiya. According to a handwritten statement Nkosi gave to police after a raid on his home, the call occurred around December 23, 2025.
Nkosi, who had possession of the card at the time and had used it with Matlala’s permission to buy boat accessories, told the commission he could not speculate on why Matlala needed it back. He omitted any reference to Mashatile when he later typed up his statement for the inquiry, describing the omission as a “human error.”
In a swift response, Mashatile’s office stated that the deputy president does not know Matlala, has never met him, and was out of the country on the date in question. Spokesperson Keith Khoza emphasised there was “no connection whatsoever” between the deputy president and the alleged underworld figure.
The testimony forms part of the Madlanga Commission’s broader probe into alleged infiltration of criminal syndicates into the police and criminal justice system.