A North West businessman who once sat as treasurer of his regional ANC structure spent Wednesday in a Pretoria courtroom asking for his freedom, and by the end of the day he had secured only half of it. Suliman Carrim was granted bail of R100,000 in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court, yet he walked out of the hearing still a detained man, held in a second criminal case in another province.
For Carrim, the week has moved quickly from airport departure lounge to court dockets. Two weeks ago he was at OR Tambo International Airport preparing to leave South Africa. On the evening of 15 October he was arrested there instead, just as he was about to fly out. Since then he has been drawn into proceedings in two provinces, and a development expected by Friday could make his position considerably worse.
The Pretoria case stems from his conduct before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. Carrim testified earlier this year but never returned to finish, despite being scheduled to continue. His legal team produced medical documentation from a doctor declaring him unfit to testify. He declined an independent medical assessment, and while apparently too unwell to appear before the commission, he was seen at a restaurant in Cape Town. That sequence of events ended with his arrest.
The bail conditions handed down on Wednesday are strict. His legal representative must contact the Madlanga Commission within 48 hours and arrange his next appearance there. His passport stays with the investigating officer until both his trial and his commission testimony are concluded. He may not leave South Africa without written permission from the court.
Even with R100,000 available, release was impossible, because a second case holds him. He was arrested in that matter last week, six days after his detention over the commission, and is charged alongside two co-accused with attempting to smuggle two cars out of South Africa. The National Prosecuting Authority said it is alleged that Carrim, acting in collusion with his employees, attempted to steal two vehicles belonging to Absa by taking them out of the country using fraudulent documentation. That case is heard in the Musina Magistrates’ Court and resumes there on Friday, 30 October.
It is in Musina that the next blow may fall. During Wednesday’s bail proceedings, prosecutors tried and failed to reopen the bail application, arguing that Carrim had not disclosed properties owned by his wife and that he faced charges in Musina. His attorney, Ulrich Roux, told the court the Musina case was separate from the Pretoria matter, and explained that the two other suspects there were arrested in July and have been in custody ever since. They appeared in the Musina court on Tuesday, and the SABC named them as Musa Phiri and Zakes Ibrahim.
Roux said it was envisioned that on Friday “a guilty plea [would] be submitted on behalf of the two accused who are already before court”, adding that they had been in “extensive plea negotiations” with the State. His warning to the court was blunt about what that would mean for his client. “If the two accused in that matter plead guilty,” he said, “it will have a severe impact on the strength of the State’s case in that matter against [Carrim].” In plain terms, guilty pleas from his co-accused would complicate Carrim’s legal position considerably.
The Pretoria case, where bail was granted over his failure to return to the commission, resumes on 8 December. What evidence leaders there likely want to ask him about can be glimpsed in the testimony already given. His earlier appearance drew attention to his connections with several high-profile figures, among them ANC fixer and fellow North West businessman Brown Mogotsi, who currently faces charges for allegedly faking his own attempted murder.
The commission itself exists to investigate allegations first aired publicly last year, when KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held a press conference claiming a cartel had infiltrated South Africa’s criminal justice system, politics and private security. Senior police officers alleged the cartel, known as the Big Five, was involved in crimes ranging from tender fraud to cash-in-transit heists and drug trafficking.
The commission also heard that financial transactions connected Carrim to Morgan Maumela, whose name has surfaced in a Special Investigating Unit probe into the looting of more than R2-billion from the Tembisa Hospital. Carrim admitted to dealings with Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, who faces criminal charges including attempted murder, is accused of colluding with corrupt police officers, and is alleged to be a member of the Big Five. Matlala told the commission he became close to Carrim because both visited the late taxi boss Jothan Msibi, alleged by some police officers to have headed the cartel.
Meanwhile, beyond the two court cases, Carrim faces scrutiny of another kind. Last month President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorising the SIU to investigate corruption and irregular expenditure allegations at the state-owned North West Transport Investments. According to a government statement, the SIU was also authorised to investigate significant maladministration in the NTI’s operations regarding the receipt, processing, approval, and payment of claims submitted by various companies, including Ziggy Investments CC, which is linked to Carrim. The statement added that the SIU will examine whether these operations breached applicable legislation and guidelines issued by the National Treasury or the relevant Provincial Treasury.
For now, Carrim remains in custody, waiting on a Musina courtroom on Friday where the pleas of two men he has never stood beside in public could shape the case against him. Will the co-accused go through with the guilty pleas, and if so, how hard will that land on Carrim?