Suleiman Carrim was silent about payments to Matlala, commission hears

North West businessperson Suleiman Carrim did not disclose to the Madlanga commission two substantial payments he made to Medicare24 in June 2024.

Commission evidence leader advocate Matthew Chaskalson said that while working on the Medicare24 accounts spreadsheet on Tuesday morning at about 5am, he came across two payments that were linked to Carrim.

“I stumbled across the fact that there were two substantial payments from another construction company of Mr Carrim to Medicare24, which he did not mention in the statement and which I would like to ask him about because he certainly should have mentioned it,” he told the commission.

Chaskalson said the first payment is a sum of R1m on June 27, followed by R1.1m on October 7.

Carrim’s lawyer, Rafik Bhana, said the commission’s summons did not order his client to disclose his business dealings.

Bhana told the commission that he would need more time to consult with his client based on this and other documents he received from the commission on Tuesday.

Medicare24 is a company owned by Vusimusi Matlala, which had secured a R350m contract with the South African Police Service (SAPS) to conduct the health assessments of new recruits.

On Monday, Carrim told the commission that he invested R10m, and of that amount only received R1.75m in return, incurring a loss of more than R8m.

Carrim is accused of attempting to help Matlala to stop the cancellation of the tender.

Sowetan