Cat Matlala and three co-accused wait until February 2027 as R95,000 Waterkloof lease fraud case is postponed
The Pretoria Magistrate's Court put the property fraud matter back to 11 February 2027 for financial investigations to be finalised, with Matlala in custody after abandoning his bail bid and his three co-accused each out on R20,000.
Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, his wife Tsakane Matlala, his sister Claudette Masethe and Gift Makofane will wait until February 2027 to learn the next step in the property fraud case against them, after the matter was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
The four appeared briefly on Thursday, 29 October. The case was put back to 11 February 2027 so that financial investigations can be finalised. As Sunday World reported on 29 October, the charges concern the alleged falsification of documents used to secure a lease on a luxury property in Waterkloof, Pretoria, at R95 000 a month.
The State alleges the four acted with a common purpose in January 2025 when fraudulent documentation was submitted to a real estate agent to secure the property. Matlala faces a further charge under the Identification Act, tied to an identity document said to be forged and purportedly issued in Eswatini.
The charges include fraud, forgery and uttering. None of the accused has pleaded, and the allegations have not been tested in court.
Matlala has abandoned his bail application in this matter, with his legal team choosing to deal with his other criminal proceedings first. The State had indicated it would oppose his release. He remains in custody in connection with those other proceedings. Tsakane Matlala, Masethe and Makofane were each granted bail of R20 000. The three were arrested in September by the Gauteng Political Killings Task Team in connection with the alleged lease fraud and have since appeared alongside Matlala.
The property case runs alongside a separate matter in the Johannesburg High Court, where Matlala and his wife are among the accused in proceedings involving alleged attempted murder and related offences arising from three shooting incidents between August 2022 and January 2024. The National Prosecuting Authority has said the accused in that case face 25 charges, including 11 counts of attempted murder. The State alleges those incidents form part of a broader criminal scheme. Matlala remains in custody there too.
In August 2026 Matlala appeared before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. He declined to answer questions about his SAPS Medicare24 tender, about denials of certain political connections, and about allegations that investigators tried to pressure him into implicating senior police officials. He relied on his constitutional right against self-incrimination, arguing that answering some questions could prejudice his pending criminal case.
What South Africans will notice is the calendar. A lease fraud matter that turns on documents and a rental figure now sits more than a year away from its next court date, while the accused’s other matters move on separate tracks in different courts. For a reader following the case, the practical question after Thursday is not what was decided but what was not: no plea, no trial date, and a financial investigation still open.
