Carrim tells Madlanga commission payments tied to failed deal, not money-laundering

The facilitation of payments between corruption-accused Vusi “Cat” Matlala and Hangwani Morgan Maumela cannot be interpreted as money-laundering but was rather a business deal gone wrong, North West businessman Suliman Carrim told the Madlanga commission on Monday.

Carrim finally took the witness box after a failed court battle between the commission and his legal team and another failed application for his testimony to be heard in-camera. His legal team has complained that he is being ill-treated.

The commission, chaired by retired deputy chief justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate allegations by Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi of criminal infiltration in the justice cluster.

Carrim, who owns a security company, faces allegations of attempting to influence suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu to delay a probe into Matlala’s company Medicare24, which had a R360m tender with the SAPS.

Carrim testified his link to Matlala was based on a business deal that went wrong, and he lost about R8.2m when Medicare24’s contract was cancelled last year.

He told the commission he advanced a loan of R10m to Matlala in June 2024 to assist him with his tender. He was not paid any money until February 4 2025.

On that day, he was paid R1.5m after the SAPS paid Matlala.

Shortly after the payment Carrim sent a message to Matlala, referring to Maumela, saying, “Morgan sorted.”

Carrim’s company paid R500,000 to a company linked to Maumela and later paid R250,000.

Quizzed why he sent money to Maumela, Carrim said Matlala had asked him to advance the money to Maumela on his behalf, but Matlala apparently could not explain properly why he could not send it directly.

Carrim told the commission he was not acting as a “conduit” between Matlala and Maumela but sent the money because he was put under pressure and was “scared”.

“They both kept on putting me under pressure to pay this money,” he said.

Maumela, whose companies were flagged by murdered state official Babita Deokaran in suspected tender corruption at Tembisa Hospital last September, was subject to a National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) preservation order to seize property worth R325m.

A report by a forensic accounting investigator before the high court in Johannesburg revealed that the Maumela family trust received more than R2.3bn in 2018-23, which is more than the amount in frozen assets.

Companies linked to Matlala were also flagged for allegedly being involved in the Tembisa Hospital fraud.

Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson put it to Carrim that the transactions he made between Matlala and Maumela could be interpreted as money-laundering should the commission take the position that the Medicare24 contract was awarded fraudulently and that funds flowing to the tender were the result of fraud.

Chaskalson said in that scenario the commission could recommend that Carrim, Matlala and Maumela face a money-laundering probe.

Carrim pleaded innocence, saying that when he met Matlala in June 2024 there were no corruption allegations on the specific tender.

“I had not done this with the intention of committing any fraud. I just got caught in a web of people. I was just doing my business as a businessman. Obviously I made a bad choice,” Carrim said.

Bank records also show Carrim’s company paid more than R40m to Luthanga Trading, linked to Maumela, in 2023-24. Carrim said the money was a repayment to Maumela after he pulled out of a mining-related business with him.

Carrim, who also faces allegations of influencing Mchunu, told the commission he had no relationship with the minister.

Carrim told the commission that the contract was cancelled, leading to him losing millions, is proof he had no relationship with the minister.

Matlala’s WhatsApp messages show Carrim told him in May he had sent the minister a message that read: “Good morning, minister. I just received a call from our guy, who’s a service provider for our health risk management project; he’s got very serious concerns. Apparently, you gave a directive to scrutinise his contract, and while they are at it, they must stall as much as they can to release purchase orders until you guys come up with something that can warrant the termination of the service.”

Carrim, however, told the commission the message was sent to him by his friend Brown Mogotsi.

Phone records show Mogotsi sent the message to Matlala.

Carrim said Mogotsi advised him to send the message to Matlala and to mislead Matlala about the alleged relationship with the minister as a trick to get his money back.

“I was desperate, and I needed to do it,” Carrim said.

Carrim said the impression that he had a relationship with the minister is false.

Carrim said he was not aware that Mogotsi was talking to Matlala at the time. He described the exchange between Matlala and Mogotsi as a scenario of both playing him.

Mchunu told a parliamentary committee probing allegations of criminal syndicate infiltration in the security cluster that he had received the message requesting that the probe be delayed but maintained he did not respond to it.

The minister said, “It could be a person I may have met once or something like that.”

Carrim also faces allegations of possessing internal police documents. He said he received the documents from Mogotsi.

He will continue with his testimony on Tuesday.

Update: March 9 2026

This article has been updated with new information.