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.
