Madlanga Commission: Carrim’s lawyers intend to file postponement application

The lawyers for controversial North West businessman Suleiman Carrim are requesting the Madlanga Commission to stand down on Tuesday because they intend to file a postponement application.

Carrim’s legal team received additional documents from the commission’s evidence leaders on Tuesday morning.

The documents refer to bank statements that show previously undisclosed payments flowing from one of Carrim’s companies to Medicare24.

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Medicare24 is owned by alleged tender fraudster Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala, and it was awarded an irregular R360 million tender by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in June 2024.

Carrim’s lawyer, Rafik Bhana, said he needs more time to consult with his client before he is questioned on this new information.

“The documents look like this, intense line items of hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of transactions. It might be that the commission says it’s not intending to refer to all those transactions, but we have simply not had an adequate or fair opportunity to deal with this.”

Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson is opposing the postponement.

Chaskalson said the fault lies with Carrim, who didn’t disclose these payments from the beginning.

“There is no innocent explanation for just overlooking the fact that more than R2 million beyond what you have disclosed also happened to be paid. The reason that these documents were made available to his legal team today and not earlier is that first of all, he filed his statement late, and secondly, he didn’t disclose these payments, and thirdly, he didn’t disclose the fact that he had sight of the bank transactions of Medicare24.”