Businessman challenges Madlanga commission subpoena in urgent court bid

North West businessman Suleiman Carrim has launched an urgent High Court application to stop the Madlanga commission from compelling his testimony.

The ANC member is set to take the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System to court on Tuesday in an urgent bid to prevent the commission from subpoenaing him to appear before it.

Carrim was implicated in testimony before the Madlanga commission by “Witness X”, alleged crime boss Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala and Brown Mogotsi.

Carrim’s urgent application demands interdict

The businessman, in papers filed before the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, is asking the court to immediately stop the commission from forcing him to submit a written statement or appear before it until the lawfulness of the commission’s action is reviewed.

Carrim wants the court to stop the commission from compelling him to cooperate for now. He asks the court to interdict the Madlanga commission from “issuing a notice calling upon the applicant to file a written statement or subpoenaing the applicant or coercing him in any way to appear before the commission”.

This protection would apply until Part B of his bid is decided, or until the commission complies with its own rules.

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He wants the high court to order the commission to properly answer his lawyers’ letters before taking any further steps.

Carrim also wants the commission ordered to “fully and properly respond to the letters sent by the applicant’s legal team” within three days, before compelling him to testify.

The businessman says in the papers that the commission acted unlawfully and unfairly in issuing a notice against him; it failed to properly respond to his lawyers’ questions.

Implicated in Madlanga commission

He added that the commission wants to compel him to testify before he has been given a fair chance to challenge the evidence against him.

Matlala told the commission that Carrim had someone close to Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and involved him in trying to address a halted R360 million health risk management contract.

Matlala said he also pressured Carrim to mediate with the minister, sending messages like “You’ll let me know whenever he is ready,” showing that he relied on Carrim to engage on his behalf.

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In Part B of the bid, the businessman asks the court to review and set aside the commission’s decision to issue a Regulation 10(6) notice against him.

He argues that the decision violates the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) and breaches the constitutional principle of legality.

Carrim asks the court to declare the decisions “unconstitutional, unlawful, and invalid”.

Carrim argues he has not been allowed to test evidence

Several witnesses have implicated him – including Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi – yet he argues that he has not been allowed to test their evidence.

Carrim is asking the court to order the commission to recall these witnesses so that they may be “cross-examined by the applicant’s legal representatives before the applicant gives oral testimony”.

Alternatively, he wants the right to make formal representations, asking that this cross-examination be allowed.

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