MBABANE – Crime intelligence Head Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo has told Parliament that alleged underworld figure Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala holds dual citizenship.
This contradicted Matlala’s earlier sworn claims, according to TimesLive in South Africa. Khumalo made the revelation on Thursday during his appearance before Parliament’s ad hoc committee, which is probing allegations of corruption within the criminal justice system.
In his earlier testimony before the same committee in November, Matlala denied possessing an Eswatini identity document or using the surname ‘Dlamini’, which was linked to the document in question. At the time, he claimed that the image of the Eswatini ID found on his phone had been ‘planted’ there by investigators.
However, Khumalo told the committee that forensic analysis of Matlala’s cellphone proved otherwise. “During the forensic analysis of Matlala’s cellphone, investigators found a picture of an Eswatini identity card in a chat between Mr Matlala and his wife,” Khumalo testified. “In the exchange, Matlala requested his wife to: ‘Please send me my Swati ID, it’s in our chats. I deleted it by mistake from my side.’”
Khumalo said Matlala’s wife subsequently sent the image to him, confirming that the document was in his possession long before investigators accessed his phone. He further told the committee that Matlala lied to both parliament and the courts regarding the existence of the Eswatini ID and the alleged tampering with his phone.
“Matlala made a false statement in Parliament by publicly denying having such an ID. The allegations that the information on his phones was tampered with, claims which appeared to be echoed by the deputy national commissioner and Idac head Andrea Johnson, are false and were made without any supporting evidence from a cyber expert,” Khumalo said.
Khumalo added that Eswatini authorities had confirmed the ID was indeed issued to Matlala, though through highly irregular and ‘procedurally erroneous’ means.
The Eswatini authorities confirmed that Vusimuzi Dlamini is not a citizen of Eswatini by birth. They found that the personal identification number was created on February 12, 2024, and used to issue a national ID before a birth certificate was even registered.
The birth record, Khumalo explained, was only registered eight days later, on February 20, 2024, a sequence that clearly indicated fraud. He concluded by confirming that the investigation team had already arrested the individuals responsible for facilitating the issuance of the fraudulent ID to Matlala.
In November, the Times of Eswatini reported that South Africa’s High Court confirmed that attempted murder-accused Matlala used a fraudulent Eswatini ID.
The revelation was contained in the judgment issued by the High Court of South Africa, which endorsed the denial of bail for the high-profile businessman. Acting Judge PJ Du Plessis, of the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, noted in his October 27 ruling that the prosecution was unaware if the police investigating team had the original document.
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