One of the alleged crime kingpins recently exposed by Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as having a tight stranglehold on senior SAPS officials and ANC leaders is embroiled in a citizenship scandal in the neighbouring Kingdom of Eswatini.
Vusumuzi “Cat” Matlala allegedly holds the citizenship of the kingdom, and it is believed that it was fraudulently obtained.
It is not clear why Matlala, who is currently in custody for other cases, needed the citizenship of the impoverished country while he was already a citizen of South Africa, his country of birth.
According to the Times of Eswatini, a leading newspaper in the kingdom, Matlala is registered in the country’s population register as Vusumuzi Dlamini and was born in 1976. He is also registered as a resident of Montshane, a peri-urban village outside the capital city of Mbabane.
Matlala was allegedly registered as the second-born son of Christinah Thembi Shongwe, and there are no details about his father. Further details suggest that Matlala acquired Eswatini citizenship recently.
The woman registered as Matlala’s mother reportedly said he is not her son and she lost her ID in 2024, implying that fraudsters may have used the document to add the feared suspect as her son.
“The picture on the Eswatini ID matches Matlala’s widely circulated image in South African media, suggesting a recent acquisition,” the newspaper reported.
There is no official comment from the government of Eswatini regarding the eyebrow-raising matter yet.
