News24 | PODCAST | The Lead: Jeff Wicks tells us how Vusimusi Matlala became the ‘Cat’

The stare of a man whose name came to control the news headlines in 2025. But perhaps, Jeff Wicks muses, the Cat's nine lives may be finally up.

Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala has been a name tough to keep out of our top news headlines of 2025.

From the Tembisa Hospital extraction scandal to a failed hit on his former lover, actress Tebogo Thobejane, all while brushing shoulders with former police commissioner and long-time minister Bheki Cele – the Cat’s nine lives may well and truly be finally up.

And our guest on this end-of-year edition of The Lead is the man who has taken up slain whistleblower Babita Deokaran’s cause to flag criminality in the Gauteng health sector, our intrepid investigative journalist, Jeff Wicks.

You can send our host, broadcast journalist Graeme Raubenheimer, a voice note with your questions or thoughts on the show: 072 562 3179. To advertise in the show: thelead@24.com. Full editions drop Monday through Thursday at 19:00 on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

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