‘Die, you dog’: Chilling testimony in Cat Matlala trial

Image:Itumeleng English/ Independent Newspapers/IOL Graphics A security guard was overcome with emotion in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday as he relived the night two gunmen with AK-47s opened fire at the Centurion Golf Estate, the first bullet narrowly missing him. Bethuel Mzamo Cele was the first witness called by the state in the trial of Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his four co-accused, testifying in isiZulu through an interpreter about the ambush of August 10 2022. Nearly four years later, he said he remembered everything.

“If I am thinking about that incident, it is like it happened yesterday,” Cele said. Cele, who was guarding the estate’s car park that night, said a red Ferrari had arrived, followed by a white Golf 7. While he stood with a colleague who had come to hand him a two-way radio, a white BMW passed slowly, its window slightly lowered, as if its occupants were looking for something.

The BMW made a U-turn at the robot, came back, and parked in the car park where the Ferrari and the Golf stood. “Then two male people alighted from that motor vehicle. When they alighted, they drew out their AK-47s,” Cele said. “Then they saw that I spotted them, and then I was missed by the first bullet.” Cele said he and his colleague ran, and he pulled the man to safety behind a tree as the gunmen turned their fire on the Golf, smashing its window.