Defence brands key police evidence ‘pure hearsay’ in Cat Matlala trial

What the trial-within-a-trial is testing

The proceedings are a trial within a trial to determine whether evidence obtained after the arrest of Musa Kekana on April 17, 2024, can be admitted. Tactical Response Team (TRT) Captain Alfred Phimi Sekgobela was giving testimony about the events that led to Kekana’s arrest when defence attorney Annalene van den Heever challenged parts of his account.

WATCH | Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his four co-accused are back in the Johannesburg High Court, where a trial-within-a-trial is under way over disputed evidence. pic.twitter.com/H0mOeCtqpw

SABC News (@SABCNews) August 3, 2026

Dispute over the basis for the arrest

Van den Heever argued that Sekgobela’s reliance on information from private security officer Christiaan Frederick Sheppard and the investigating officer amounted to hearsay. She told the court the State had no reasonable suspicion at the scene on 8th Road to arrest those present on the murder charge related to the Vereeniging shooting.

“Based on your own evidence, you had no reasonable suspicion at 8th Road to arrest the people who were present there, including the third person, on the murder charge relating to what transpired in Vereeniging,”

Sekgobela said he had received information from Sheppard that Kekana arrived at a property in Kew in a white Hyundai i20 and later left in a Mercedes-Benz V-Class. He said officers intercepted the V-Class and arrested Kekana and Michael Pule Tau.

Vehicle, fingerprints and firearms

Sekgobela testified that investigators traced a stolen white Hyundai i20 to Kekana’s residence in Kew. The vehicle had been hijacked during an armed robbery in January 2024, the court heard. Sheppard had previously testified that Kekana had been seen driving the vehicle and that his fingerprints were allegedly recovered from the car. Authorities also recovered firearms inside the Hyundai, including an AK-47, which the State says connects Kekana to multiple attempted assassinations.

Questions about securing the earlier scene

Van den Heever questioned why officers did not secure the location on 5th Road where the Hyundai was said to have been seen. Sekgobela told the court he did not secure that scene because the team lacked manpower and that the whole unit went to 8th Road instead. He also acknowledged he had not contacted nearby police stations for assistance.

“It is the most unusual thing I have ever heard – for police to know the vehicle involved in a cold-blooded murder and not immediately secure it.”

Sekgobela responded:

“That is not true. We knew that from 8th Road to 5th Road is less than 2 kilometres.”

He later estimated travel time between the two roads as “less than five minutes.”

Arrest, searches and contested admissibility

The defence argued Kekana’s arrest was unlawful, that his constitutional rights were not explained to him and that subsequent searches were conducted without a warrant. Sekgobela said that when officers arrested the suspects at 8th Road they informed them they were being arrested for murder and that additional charges were added when firearms were discovered.

During re-examination by Senior State Advocate Elize le Roux, Sekgobela said officers had hoped to find “the motor vehicle that was used to commit the crime and the firearms that were used to execute the crime” had Kekana not consented to the search. On the difficulty of recalling details over time, he told the court:

“Advocate, it would be difficult for me to recall each and every detail. “If you calculate every week from 2024 until 2026, you will see how many operations there were. If you could recall everything, you would have the memory of a memory stick,”

Next steps

Van den Heever submitted that the information Sekgobela relied on from the investigating officer that day was “pure hearsay and cannot be admissible.” Sekgobela declined to comment further on that point. Judge Cassim Moosa adjourned proceedings and indicated the court would hear testimony from a new witness. The trial within a trial continues.