By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has struck off the roll, with costs, ANC businessman Suleiman Carrim’s urgent application to avoid appearing in the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.
The ANC member launched an urgent application to the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Monday seeking to prevent the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System from compelling his testimony.
Carrim is scheduled to appear before the commission on Friday, February 6.
Responding to the application, commission chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga told the high court that Carrim has failed to establish valid grounds for urgency.
“The application is an abuse of process, and any urgency faced by Carrim is self-created,” he said.
Carrim has been accused of accepting R2.5-million for helping criminally accused Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala obtain payments related to his R360-million SAPS contract, which was later cancelled.
Carrim argued that the commission had breached its own rules and the constitutional principles of fairness, and that he was being singled out and treated differently from other implicated people.
His application was in two parts. In Part A, an urgent application, he wanted an interdict preventing the commission from calling on him to provide a statement or to appear before it to give oral testimony until the commission has complied with the relevant regulations and rules.
In Part B, he asked the court to review and set aside the commission’s decision to refer to him as a witness on the basis that he is an “implicated person” until it complies with the principles of natural justice to protect the rights afforded to him in section 12 of the Constitution.
High Court Judge Denise Fisher struck the matter off the roll with costs on Thursday, paving the way for Carrim to appear before the commission in Pretoria on Friday.
The judge noted that Carrim had known since at least October 2025 that his presence was required and that summonses had been issued to him on several occasions since November. The court found he delayed too long before approaching the urgent court.
“Three months have been allowed to elapse and now there is an attempt, through the courts, to frustrate a lawful process days before the appearance is set to commence, “the judgment states.
The court said the summons for his appearance remains valid and binding, and that there was no proper basis to set it aside.
It added that witnesses are not entitled to impose conditions before complying with a commission summons.
“If every witness before the commission were entitled to impose conditions under which he would comply … the process would be rendered impossible and the constitutional purpose for which it has been convened thwarted.”
The application was struck off with costs on a higher scale, including the costs of two counsel.
The commission has been hearing evidence of alleged criminality, political interference and corruption within South Africa’s law enforcement agencies, following claims by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that top officials had conspired to obstruct investigations into criminal syndicates.