Netcare 911 paramedic has told the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg that Matlala co-accused Musa Kekana told her he had been assaulted by police before he was taken to hospital following an incident in which he allegedly coughed up blood.
Mary Kgapele, who was working as an Ambulance Emergency Assistant for Netcare 911 on 17 April 2024, testified in the trial-within-a-trial in the case involving controversial businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and his co-accused.
Her evidence places an allegation of police assault in Kekana’s account to a medical responder on the day in question.
Kgapele said she and her colleague responded to a call initially classified as a medical emergency involving a suspect who was experiencing breathing difficulties and coughing up blood.
They arrived at the first scene at about 12:52. According to Kgapele, Kekana was sitting at the side of the road when they arrived.
She said the paramedics conducted their own assessment, including a head-to-toe examination.
“He was not in any sort of distress. He was calm, on oxygen. We did our own vital signs. We took medical history. We did a head-to-toe survey, and we continued with oxygen administration,” she said.
The paramedic said the examination revealed no external injuries.
“We did not note any external injuries,” she testified.
But Kgapele said Kekana did make an allegation against police during their interaction.
“He did mention that he had been assaulted by the police,” she told the Court.
However, when asked whether Kekana had specifically told her that he had been suffocated, Kgapele said she could not remember.
She also acknowledged that the allegation of assault did not appear in her written report.
“I treated the case as a medical case, as it came to me as a medical case. I continued it as a medical case,” she said adding that Kekana was coughing up blood.
‘We actually saw him coughing out blood,’ she said.
Kgapele’s evidence also differs in an important respect from some of the uncertainty heard from the doctor who examined Kekana later at Edenvale Hospital.
She testified that she personally saw Kekana coughing blood. When asked where the information in the hospital referral document came from, Kgapele said it came from the dispatch information, her own observations and Kekana himself.
“We also saw him coughing out the blood,” she said. Pressed on whether she actually saw it, she said: “Yes, ma’am.”
Asked what she observed, she said: “Like I said, when I arrived on the scene, he was sitting at the side of the road, calm but coughing now and again, and there was blood coming out of his mouth.”
This evidence is significant because Kgapele’s written patient report recorded Kekana as a 35-year-old man with difficulty breathing and coughing out blood.
She also recorded a history that he had been intubated approximately two weeks earlier because of suspected poisoning.
Kgapele testified that the paramedics later went with Kekana to another location at Fifth Road in Q.
She said police removed him from the ambulance while he remained connected to the portable monitoring equipment and oxygen.
“When the police were taking him out, we assisted them by carrying the monitor, which was still attached to him, and the oxygen,” she said.
Kekana was handcuffed, but Kgapele said his hands were cuffed in front. The paramedics then escorted him into the yard and returned to their ambulance.
She said they could still see him from the vehicle and periodically went back inside to check his vital signs.
According to Kgapele, his vital signs remained stable, although his blood pressure and heart rate were elevated.
She rejected a suggestion that Kekana had been manhandled by police in her presence.
“Not in my presence,” she said.
Asked what she would say if evidence emerged that police had pulled Kekana’s oxygen pipe, Kgapele again said she did not see it happen.
The state asked: “Did it happen in your presence?”
And she responded: “Not in my presence.”
Kgapele said the ambulance eventually transported Kekana to hospital after police requested that they first take him to Alexandra Clinic. He was subsequently referred to Edenvale Hospital.
The court heard that the paramedic classified Kekana as a yellow-code patient, meaning an urgent case under Netcare 911’s system.
She said she could still independently remember the incident without relying report and that can still remember aspects of the encounter.
She also confirmed that the Netcare 911 patient report reflected what she had recorded at the time.
The court heard that Kgapele had worked for Netcare 911 from April 2021 until September 2025 and had been qualified as an Ambulance Emergency Assistant since 2017.
Her role was to respond to calls, stabilize patients and transport them to hospital. Kgapele completed her evidence-in-chief with no further questions from the State.
The trial-within-a-trial continues.
