Suliman Carrim: The Sick Note Shopper
Suliman Carrim’s lawyers handed the Madlanga Commission a doctor’s note on 14 July 2026, the same day two independent whistleblowers placed him at a Western Cape shopping centre. Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson told the commission on 15 July that the note explains Carrim’s absence but not 2 months of silence on a formal document request. Carrim’s postponement application is set down for 14:00 on Friday 17 July 2026.
Suliman Carrim was due to testify at the Madlanga Commission on Wednesday 15 July. He didn’t come. The day before, his lawyers submitted a medical certificate referring back to a hospital admission on 17 June, more than a month before the note itself reached the commission.
Evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson told the commission the note explained Carrim’s absence but did not explain why, for 2 months, he has failed to answer a single question from a formal notice the commission served on him in April. That notice asked Carrim for the names of the auditors for 3 of his companies, Ziggy, Tasmica and Tameez, along with financial statements for those companies and answers to questions raised when he testified in person in March.
Carrim is not simply a witness before the commission. He is the regional treasurer of the ANC in Ngaka Modiri Molema, in the North West. Chaskalson told the commission that companies linked to Carrim have been paid hundreds of millions of rand by North West provincial government and municipalities, in the same region where Carrim holds that party position, and that those companies continue to operate and be paid while Carrim says he is too unwell to send the commission a list of names.
Hours after the doctor’s note was submitted, the commission received two independent whistleblower reports placing Carrim and an entourage at a shopping centre in the Western Cape. Commission staff say they have since spoken to eyewitnesses at the centre who confirm the sighting, describing Carrim’s entourage going into Woolworths before sitting down for a late lunch. The commission has subpoenaed CCTV footage from the centre, along with 4 months of hospital and medical consultation records and the doctor treating Carrim in Cape Town.
Commissioner Sandile Khumalo raised a question during Chaskalson’s submission that goes to the heart of the commission’s concern. If Carrim’s representatives could arrange his travel to Cape Town, Khumalo asked, why could the same representatives not relay the names of his companies’ auditors on his behalf. Chaskalson later told the commission that if Carrim’s postponement application leaves any of the commission’s questions unanswered, the commission will draw its own inference from the gaps.
Carrim’s advocate, Kameel Premhid, did not dispute the shopping centre sighting. His argument was procedural. He told the commission the medical report already before it explains both Carrim’s absence and his difficulty responding to the commission’s questions, and asked that the medical detail be dealt with in a closed session on Friday to protect his client’s privacy. Premhid also raised concern that the whistleblower claims should have reached him in writing before being raised in an open hearing.
The commission has now set a formal timetable. Carrim’s postponement application must be filed by 20:00 tonight, Thursday 16 July. The commission’s response is due by 11:00 on Friday 17 July, with Carrim’s reply due by 13:00 that day. The application will be argued before the commission at 14:00 on Friday.
