KZN Hawks head Senona admits leaking police info to ‘friend’ Cat Matlala

Despite claiming that he followed the prescripts of the law and was bound by the SAPS oath, KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Lesetja Senona was forced to admit on Wednesday during his Madlanga Commission testimony that he had shared confidential police information, with alleged crime kingpin Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala. 

Senona was grilled by the commissioners about the information he had shared with Matlala about SAPS officers and Hawks officers in KZN under his supervision in the Hawks.

This came after Senona had claimed on Tuesday that he was bound by the SAPS oath and would therefore not divulge police-held information with members of the public.

However, on Wednesday, Senona was confronted with evidence that he had forwarded an affidavit with personal information on alleged kidnapper Esmael Nangy to Matlala.

The affidavit in question contained attachments bearing confidential information on some police officials and ID numbers.

In response, Senona claimed that he was alerting Matlala of “this gentleman in his area (Centurion) that was arrested for kidnapping and extortion”.

But, co-commissioner Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC was not satisfied with this answer and questioned how Senona obtained the documents and why he sent them to a private citizen.

“We have documents that are official state documents and you sent them to a private citizen who is your friend/brother who is accused of involvement in serious alleged crimes. What we are doing is that we are battling to get an understanding of how it is that you gained possession of these documents that you forwarded,” she said.

Baloyi expressed shock that Senona shared a document containing Nangy's ID, picture, and personal details, including his marriage certificate, with Matlala.

“This is highly personal information which, in a different context, you are precluded by the Protection of Personal Information Act from distributing further and sharing it with Mr Matlala,” she said.

She slammed Senona's actions, saying sharing such personal information with Matlala, accused of serious crimes, showed "at best, a lack of judgement if it wasn't deliberate". 

Senona insisted that he had not seen there were attachments to the document with other people's personal information when he shared the affidavit with Matlala. 

Advocate Sandile Khumalo SC, co-commissioner, however raised that Senona also shared confidential information on SAPS detectives and crime intelligence officials, including their ID numbers, with Matlala. 

That was after Senona's then claimed that he obtained the documents from a News24 website or via WhatsApp adding that therefore they were already in the public domain.

The commission pointed out that the News24 article merely stated the writer had seen the affidavit, with no attachment.

The commission highlighted that Senona shared confidential documents in March 2025 despite having top security clearance that explicitly barred him from doing so.

It also emerged that Matlala sent Senona confidential documents about the Senzo and Thembeka Mchunu foundation, including a top-secret document on President Cyril Ramaphosa and a corruption article on Rustenburg Local Municipality, after one of their meetings.

Senona said he did not open or read them, unaware of their contents. 

Despite the fact that Senona had referred to Matlala as his brother and friend, he claimed he did not know Matlala was involved in the Tembisa hospital tender scandal linked to whistleblower Barbita Deokaran's murder. 

He claimed he only learned of Matlala's link to the Tembisa hospital scandal through commission-shared newspaper articles.

Justice Mbuyisile Madlanga grilled Senona on his selective memory, pointing out he often claimed not to recall details implicating Matlala, only acknowledging issues when confronted with evidence. 

“A theme that runs through your statement is that when it comes to anything concerning Mr Matlala when you look at the text it is either you don't recall or you do not know and it is is a text stirring you in your face you will say 'yes I do read it now but I do not recall what this was all about’. That is a theme that runs through your testimony,” he said.

Regarding criticisms about his selective memory, he said: "Commissioners, I am a human being. I am subjected to characteristics of a human being. If I don't remember and it gives the commissioners a concern it is an unfortunate situation."