Cop recounts how ‘Cat’ Matlala’s co-accused fell ill and coughed blood during arrest for murder

The state on Tuesday called a second police tactical response team officer to testify about the April 2024 arrest ofVusimusi “Cat” Matlala‘s co-accused, Musa Kekana, during a police operation tasked with finding the killers of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart. Swart, 30, was assassinated as he sat in his car outside Q-Tech Engineering in Vereeniging on 17 April 2024. He was shot 23 times in an apparent case of mistaken identity after his company exposed Transnet procurement fraud.

Lt-Col Tumelo Thomas Tsotetsi took the stand at the Johannesburg high court and largely corroborated evidence given earlier by Capt Phimi Sekgobela, who was also part of the operation. Tsotetsi testified during the ongoingtrial-within-a-trial, which will determine whether evidence obtained during Kekana’s arrest can be admitted in the main case against Matlala and his co-accused. “[The forensic officers were trying to arrange an ambulance because [Musa Kekana] was coughing up blood.” Kekana is charged alongside Matlala, his wife Tsakane Matlala, Tiego Floyd Mabusela and his daughterNthabiseng Nzama.

They face 25 counts, including the attempted murders of actor Tebogo Thobejane and taxi boss Joe “Ferrari” Sibanyoni, conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering. Tsotetsi told the court that he was on his way to work shortly after 8am when Sekgobela phoned him. “He told me there was a murder incident that happened in Vereeniging where the suspects were travelling in a Hyundai i20 vehicle and a Mercedes-Benz,” Tsotetsi testified.

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He said he was instructed to join the operation in Bramley, northern Johannesburg, where officers were initially told that the suspects had entered a house on 5th Road. Before the team moved in, however, Tsotetsi said Sekgobela received fresh information from private security officer Christiaan Shepherd that the suspects had left the property in a white Mercedes-Benz Viano. Police followed Shepherd’s directions to 8th Road, where they located a vehicle matching the description.

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