Businessperson and ANC member Suliman Carrim, who invested R10m in Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala’s company, is scheduled to testify at the Madlanga commission on Friday.
Failure to appear could result in criminal sanctions for breach of summons.
Carrim lost a court bid to interdict the commission, investigating allegations of criminal infiltration in the justice system, from subpoenaing him to testify.
Judge Denise Fisher of the high court in Johannesburg struck his urgent application off the roll on Thursday.
Carrim takes to the witness box after a three-month stand-off with the commission after accusing it of breaching procedural rules and treating him unfairly in the request for him to provide a statement and appear before it.
He faces allegations of influencing senior police officers to assist the company Medicare24 of attempted murder accused Matlala with payments of purchase orders in a R360m South African Police Service (SAPS) tender. He is also accused of being an “enabler” between now suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu and Matlala.
Matlala’s bank records reveal he paid R1.5m to Carrim in February 2025.
Carrim has denied allegations levelled against him. In his court papers, he said Matlala made the payment because he invested R10m in Medicare24, adding there was nothing untoward about the payment.
Fisher, in dismissing the urgent application, said Carrim caused a delay by not initiating the application shortly after the commission sent its first notice on October 29 2025 to file a statement detailing his relationship with Matlala, suspended police minister Mchunu and Gen Feroz Khan.
“Had the applicant sincerely wished to protect his position and render himself lawfully free of the obligation to provide the information, it was open to him to do so immediately on the receipt of the notice [in October 2025]. He did not do so,“ the judgment reads.
Carrim’s attorney, Sikander Tayob, argued his client’s appearance before the commission would mean an unfair trial and contended the commission in its initial notice neither notified Carrim of prior evidence by witnesses implicating him nor provided details about who implicated him or attached evidence presented.
Fisher said Carrim, instead of challenging the alleged unlawful conduct by the commission, embarked on a process of delaying the inevitable for three months.
“Three months have been allowed to elapse and now there is an attempt, through the courts, to frustrate a lawful process days before the appearance is set to commence,” Fisher said.
“This application seems to me to be yet another orchestrated part of this stalling stratagem.”
Fisher also agreed with the commission’s legal argument that the case was moot because the interdict was issued on January 23 and there was no attempt to overturn it in the urgent application.
“Summons for the appearance tomorrow [February 6] is extant, in force and valid. There is not even an attempt made to set it aside. This is unsurprising as there is no cause for its setting aside. The legal position is clear; it must be complied with.”
Carrim wanted a list of documents and evidence from the commission before appearing, but Fisher said if every witness was entitled to impose conditions under which they would comply with summonses, the process would be rendered impossible and the constitutional purpose for the commission would be thwarted.
Carrim’s complaint of procedural unfairness against the commission’s evidence leaders was the first to be decided by a court.
The commission’s panel comprising its chair, retired Constitutional Court justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, and advocates Sandile Khumalo and Sesi Baloyi have considered complaints of procedural unfairness at the commission.
Fisher struck the matter off the roll with costs.
Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels welcomed the judgment.
“We look forward to Suliman Carrim taking the witness stand,” Michaels said.
Carrim is expected to testify after Brig Rachel Matjeng, accused of receiving money from Matlala, concludes her testimony.
Meanwhile, thecommission confirmed on Thursday that Wiandre Pretorius, implicated with Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Police Department officers Aiden McKenzie and Kershia Leigh Stols in the murder of a suspect, survived a shooting incident in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni.
Police spent most of Thursday combing the scene of the attempted murder.
Additional reporting by Herman Moloi.
Update: February 5 2026
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