The commission says a bail condition was broken (30 October 2026)
His attorneys wrote to the commission about the bail order rather than reporting in person to arrange a date.
In a media statement dated 30 October 2026 and issued by its spokesperson Jeremy Michaels, the commission confirmed 'that the attorneys representing Mr Suliman Carrim have written to the Commission merely bringing to its attention the judgment on bail delivered by the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, and the relevant bail condition contained in that judgment'. It set out the condition as requiring his attorneys to 'take the initiative and report in person, within 48 hours, to [the Commission] ... in order to make the necessary arrangements for [Mr Carrim's] next appearance before the Inquiry', and concluded: 'Thus, the attorneys have not taken the initiative envisaged in the relevant bail condition. As a result, Mr Carrim has failed to comply with the bail condition.' The distinction the statement draws is between a letter noting a court order and the act of reporting in person to arrange a date. Magistrate Marc Curlewis warned on 28 October that breaching any condition would be a breach of bail and could bring a warrant; per IOL that remains the risk. Nothing published says a warrant has been sought or issued, and this is a question about compliance with a bail condition and not a finding on any allegation about him. He is presumed innocent. The condition sits awkwardly against this commission's own ruling of 14 August 2026, that he would no longer be required to appear and that findings on him would be made on his March 2026 evidence; whether to recall him remains the commission's decision and nothing published says that ruling has changed.
Named as one of Matlala's apparent funders
Evidence leaders pointed to Carrim and Hangwani Maumela as funders behind Matlala's tender.
The commission's evidence leaders told the inquiry that Suleiman Carrim and businessman Hangwani (Morgan) Maumela appeared to be the funders behind Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, whose company Medicare24 scored a roughly R360 million SAPS health-services contract. An infographic led in evidence traced payments from Medicare24 to Tamiz Investments and onward to Carrim and North West businessman Brown Mogotsi, among others. These are untested allegations.
'Mogotsi and Matlala played me'
He testified he lost millions loaned towards the risky R360m tender deal.
Carrim testified that he was deceived into pouring money into the tender deal, telling the commission that Brown Mogotsi and Matlala 'played' him - loaning Matlala around R10 million and losing roughly R8.4 million. Mogotsi denies wrongdoing. The account is contested and untested.
The 'two police ministers' remark
He told the commission it was not possible he was close to two police ministers.
In his evidence Carrim said 'it's not possible that I'm close to two police ministers'. The remark is read against the timeline that Senzo Mchunu only took office as police minister on 3 July 2024, while the SAPS contract dates to the earlier tenure of former minister Bheki Cele. The nature of any such relationships was not unpacked before his testimony stalled.
Repeated postponements on ill health
His part-heard testimony has been delayed again and again by medical claims.
After his 9-10 March 2026 appearance, Carrim's continuation was repeatedly postponed: he was hospitalised after collapsing at a Sandton gym in April, reported to have spent time in ICU, and filed sick notes to delay further sittings - withdrawing again in late June 2026 citing ill health. Evidence leaders expressed frustration that his testimony 'raised more questions than answers'. He is presumed innocent; the commission has flagged the pattern of medical postponements.
The ruling: refused, and ordered back on 14 August (Day 150, 29 July 2026)
The commission refused his fifth postponement bid and set a date he can only escape via an independent specialist.
On 29 July 2026 chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga handed down the ruling reserved on Day 147. Carrim's application to postpone his part-heard evidence indefinitely was refused and he was directed to appear in person on 14 August 2026. Madlanga allowed one exception: 'Mr Carrim will be excused from appearing on the 14th of August 2026 only if he has voluntarily subjected himself to an independent evaluation by a medical specialist.' Crucially, that specialist is not to be selected by his own doctors - the report is to be performed by an independent medical professional nominated by the chairperson of the association of medical professionals in the field in which Carrim's doctor practises - and the appointment must be agreed and the examination completed by 3 August 2026. It was his fifth postponement application since his April health scare, and the first the commission refused outright. Carrim remains presumed innocent and the allegations concerning him are untested.
The commission resolves to lay criminal charges (Day 159, 14 August 2026)
He did not appear, did not take the independent examination, and the commission stopped accommodating him.
Carrim did not appear on 14 August 2026 and had not submitted to the independent medical examination required by the 29 July ruling. What reached the commission instead, two days before the hearing, was a further report from his own treating doctor, which evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim described as 'essentially an opinion by the same treating doctor' that did not address the daily outings. Chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga instructed the commission's secretary, Dr Nolitha Vukuza, to lay criminal charges, and drew a deliberate distinction: the commission would lay the charges itself rather than recommend that anyone else do so, leaving any decision to prosecute to the police and the prosecuting authority. He further ruled that Carrim will no longer be required to appear and that the commission will make its findings on the evidence he gave on 9 and 10 March 2026. His advocate Kameel Premhid submitted that a criminal referral was unnecessarily punitive and that a less intrusive means existed - his treating doctor had offered to testify privately and answer questions on the reports. The charge concerns non-compliance with a summons to appear; it is not a finding on any allegation about the tender or the funding, all of which remain untested. Carrim is presumed innocent.
The mall outing that undercut the sick note (Day 147, 24 July 2026)
The commission heard he spent four hours at a Cape Town mall while declared unfit to testify.
Carrim asked for his latest postponement application to be heard in camera; news organisations opposed it and chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga ruled on 23 July that it be heard in open session, on condition that the details of his medical condition were not disclosed. In that open hearing on 24 July, evidence leader Advocate Adila Hassim SC told the commission that on 14 July Carrim had spent four hours at a mall in Durbanville, Cape Town, entering a Woolworths store and a Kauai eatery - footage of which the commission held but did not screen publicly. His doctor's account described it as a chaperoned excursion between 1pm and 5pm, authorised by the facility and subject to search protocols. Hassim SC argued it showed day-to-day functioning capacity and that Carrim appeared to spend more time outside medical facilities than inside them. Madlanga said an educated guess would lead one to say the commission 'can't hold our breath' on a further date, and called the claim that only Carrim could supply his companies' auditors' names - outstanding since March - 'patently false'. The ruling was reserved, with 14 August 2026 flagged as a possible resumption date.
Arrested at OR Tambo on 15 October 2026 as he tried to board a flight out of the country
Two months after the commission laid the charges, police stopped him at the airport. Bail judgment is reserved to 28 October and he remains in custody.
Per the South African Police Service statement quoted by the Daily Maverick, officers arrested 'a 49yr-old man at OR Tambo International Airport on Thursday evening, 15/10', 'moments before he was due to board an international flight', and police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said 'The suspect was arrested for failing to appear before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.' Per the Daily Maverick the arresting unit was the Commissions Recommendations Task Team, and per Sunday World the charge is contravening section 6(1) of the Commissions Act 8 of 1947. The commission welcomed the arrest the next day in a statement by its spokesperson Jeremy Michaels, which records its view that 'Mr Carrim's conduct constituted one or more offences under the Commissions Act (8 of 1947) and the regulations applicable to the Commission' and that he 'had also continuously failed to provide the Commission with information and documentation required under Regulation 10(6)', and closes: 'The Commission trusts that Mr Carrim's arrest will send a strong message to any witness who does not take the Commission seriously.' What he was doing at the airport is disputed. Per Business Day the investigating officer, Captain Kubayi, told the court he had five bags and a one-way ticket to Dubai with a final destination of Saudi Arabia; per the Mail and Guardian his legal team said he held a return ticket dated 28 October and was travelling on a religious pilgrimage with his family. Per Sunday World the prosecutor, Advocate Donald Shiko, asked that bail stand down so the state could verify his addresses, citing properties in Johannesburg, Cape Town and the North West and a flight risk, and asked why a doctor would encourage travel but not attendance at the commission. Carrim answered from the dock: 'I was going to the pilgrimage, my doctor encouraged me to go', 'I have a condition, I black out and get panic attacks and the commission is aware of this', 'I always go to the pilgrimage, I did that for the past 17 years and I always come back', and 'I am not a criminal, I've never been arrested.' He was remanded to Kgosi Mampuru and the bail proceedings were set down for Monday 19 October 2026. Separately, Brigadier Mathe said he had been flagged by the police cold case unit over fraud and corruption allegations linked to the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality; per the Mail and Guardian and Business Day those remain under investigation and were not the charge before the court. The charge he appeared on is non-appearance and nothing more. It is not a finding on the Medicare24 tender or the funding allegations, all of which remain untested. He has not pleaded, no court has convicted him, and he is presumed innocent. The bail proceedings resumed on Monday 19 October 2026 and ended without a ruling. Per the Daily Maverick, the Mail and Guardian, IOL, Business Day and SNL24, magistrate John Curlewis postponed judgment to Wednesday 28 October 2026 and asked for transcripts, the state having argued that he tailored parts of his testimony and that it should be able to show whether his evidence changed under cross-examination. Per the reporting his lawyer said he could afford bail of R50,000; prosecutor Advocate Shiko opposed release on the grounds that he might evade trial, interfere with witnesses or conceal or destroy evidence, and put the contrast the state regards as central, that a man said to be too ill to sit through commission proceedings of about eight hours was well enough to undertake a flight of fifteen to sixteen hours. Per SABC News he had by then appointed new attorneys for the bail hearing. An argument that a witness tailored evidence is a submission in a bail application, not a finding by any court. Then, on Thursday 22 October 2026, a SECOND and separate prosecution was put on a roll. Per IOL, TimesLIVE, Eyewitness News, the Daily Maverick and Sunday World he appeared in the Musina Magistrate's Court as an accused on charges of attempted theft of motor vehicles, fraud and uttering, arising from an interception at the Beitbridge border post on 22 July 2026 involving two vehicles belonging to Absa which were still under finance and have since been returned to the bank; per the reporting the unit that added him was the Commissions Recommendations Task Team, the same unit that arrested him at OR Tambo. The court could not accommodate a formal bail application on a full roll and postponed it to Friday 30 October 2026. So two dates in two different courts now stand: the Pretoria bail JUDGMENT on the commission's non-appearance charge on 28 October, and the MUSINA bail APPLICATION on the vehicle matter on 30 October. They are different matters and this archive does not merge them, nor either of them with the Ngaka Modiri Molema fraud and corruption allegations, which on the record this archive holds remain an investigation and not a charge. He has not pleaded to any of it, an added charge is not a conviction, and he is presumed innocent.
Granted R100,000 bail on the commission's charge, and still not released (28 October 2026)
The Pretoria court let him out on the non-appearance charge and made his passport turn on finishing his testimony here. The Musina matter keeps him in custody anyway.
The judgment reserved on 19 October was delivered on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Per the Mail and Guardian, Eyewitness News, TimesLIVE, Sowetan, IOL, eNCA, Sunday World and The Witness, magistrate Marc Curlewis granted Suleiman Carrim R100,000 bail in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court. Per Eyewitness News the court held that 'the interests of justice permit his release on bail, subject to stringent bail conditions'. Per Sunday World the magistrate dismissed the state's late application to reopen its case and add material, saying 'This court believes that the evidence placed before it by the State will not affect the court's judgment in this matter', and said of the exercise, 'The purpose of a bail application is not to punish the applicant.' Per TimesLIVE that application had sought to put before the court the separate pending Musina charge and an assertion that he had not disclosed properties owned by his wife; the defence opposed it as irrelevant and unrelated, and the magistrate refused it. Per the Mail and Guardian he found that Carrim had contravened the commission's subpoena without sufficient cause, but that this did not establish a likelihood of evading trial under restrictive conditions, and that the state's concerns about future attendance were valid but insufficient to refuse bail. Per eNCA the investigating officer had initially said no proof of a return booking could be produced and the state later confirmed the booking was authentic with a return date of 27 October 2026, which weakened the flight-risk case; the Mail and Guardian dates the same return ticket 28 October, and this archive records the difference. The conditions are extensive. Per TimesLIVE: attend all proceedings unless excused; the passport stays with the investigating officer until the trial ends; surrender any other international travel documents within 24 hours of release; obtain no replacement travel documents without the court's permission; do not leave the country without authorisation; reside at his Mafikeng addresses and do not travel outside the area without the investigating officer's permission; give the investigating officer a phone number and report immediately any medical condition preventing attendance; and contact the commission within 48 hours. Per Sunday World the passport is held until both the trial and the 'finalisation of Carrim's testimony before the Madlanga Commission', he must report weekly to a police station, and his legal practitioner must report in person to the commission within 48 hours of release to arrange his next appearance; per the Mail and Guardian the weekly reporting is to the Mafikeng police station every Monday. Curlewis warned that breaching any condition would constitute a breach of bail and could bring a warrant for his arrest. One tension is worth naming plainly, because this archive already carries both halves of it: on 14 August 2026 this commission ruled that Carrim would no longer be required to appear and that its findings on him would be made on his 9 and 10 March 2026 evidence. A criminal court has now conditioned his liberty on finishing testimony the commission had stopped requiring. Whether he is in fact recalled is the commission's decision and not the court's, and nothing published shows the 14 August ruling has changed. He has not walked free. Per Eyewitness News, TimesLIVE, Sunday World and Sowetan he remains in custody on the separate Musina prosecution over the two Absa vehicles intercepted at Beitbridge, where his own bail application was set down for Friday 30 October 2026 and, per eNCA and the Taung Daily News, was that day postponed again to 9 November 2026 for the continuation of the bail hearing; per Sunday World the charges there are attempted theft of motor vehicles, fraud, uttering and money laundering, the money laundering count being an addition to the three recorded here on 22 October. Today's outlets name the magistrate Marc Curlewis; the 19 October reporting named him John Curlewis. Bail decides only whether a man is held or released pending his case. It is not a verdict and not a finding. The charge is non-appearance under a summons and nothing else, everything alleged about him at the hearings remains untested, he has not pleaded in either matter, no court has convicted him, and he is presumed innocent.
