Suliman Carrim’s Repeated No-Shows at the Madlanga Commission Are Raising Serious Red Flags

There is a pattern forming at the Madlanga Commission, and it is impossible to ignore. North West businessman Suliman Carrim has now had his testimony postponed for a third time, citing medical unfitness — and the commission’s patience is visibly wearing thin. The central thesis here is straightforward: Carrim’s repeated absences are not merely a scheduling inconvenience; they represent a direct challenge to the integrity of a public inquiry that is already racing against the clock.

Carrim was first ruled medically unfit earlier this month, forcing the commission to reschedule. He was then expected to return to the witness stand this Thursday, but that appearance has again been pushed back. His legal team, led by advocate Kameel Premhid, argues that they cannot submit the required documents because they act on client instructions, and their client is ill. The commission has accepted this explanation — twice. The third time, however, has triggered a sharper institutional response.

The commission’s chief evidence leader, Matthew Chaskalson, put it bluntly: Carrim must submit to an examination by an independent medical specialist before he returns to testify. If he refuses, the commission will seek his prosecution under Sections 5 and 6 of the Commissions Act for hindering proceedings. Chaskalson also flagged that several documents, outstanding since Carrim’s very first day of testimony, remain unsubmitted — a failure that compounds the concern that his absence is less about health and more about avoidance.

The stakes are not abstract. Carrim is implicated in an irregular R360 million SAPS tender linked to his business associate Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. The commission has also heard allegations of money laundering involving Carrim, Matlala and tender tycoon Hangwani Maumela, with scrutiny falling on the flow of funds between the three men. This is exactly the kind of testimony a public accountability process exists to hear — and it keeps not happening.

A Commission Running Out of Time

What makes this especially urgent is the timeline. The Madlanga Commission has only two months of hearings left before it must submit its final report on 31 August 2026. Chaskalson warned that if Carrim fails to appear by the newly granted deadline of July 15, the commission will be forced to draw its final conclusions from the existing record — meaning it will reach findings based on evidence Carrim has refused to provide. That is not a neutral outcome. Absence, in this context, becomes its own form of testimony.

Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels confirmed that further details would be addressed when proceedings resumed Thursday morning at 9:30am. No new date has been confirmed for Carrim’s appearance beyond the July 15 deadline.

For young South Africans watching how public money gets handled — and how those implicated in its misuse respond to accountability — this moment matters. A commission inquiry is one of the few mechanisms a democratic state has to drag the truth into the open. When that process gets stalled, delayed and obstructed by the very people it is meant to examine, it signals something bigger than one man’s health. It signals a stress test for the rule of law itself. And right now, the outcome of that test is still very much in the balance.