Carrim gets R100,000 bail, but a second case keeps him behind bars
The Pretoria Magistrate's Court released the North West businessman on charges of skipping the Madlanga Commission, with his passport held and a weekly police station reporting order attached.
Suliman Carrim will not walk out of custody despite winning bail in Pretoria. The North West businessman was granted R100,000 bail by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on charges of contravening the Commissions Act, and he remains held on a separate matter in Musina, where his bail proceedings are due on October 30.
Magistrate Marc Curlewis granted the bail after the State asked to reopen its case. Prosecutors wanted to put new information before the court, including material tied to the Musina matter and investigations that allegedly turned up properties Carrim had not disclosed. Curlewis refused the application, holding that the additional evidence would not change his decision. The purpose of a bail application, he said, is not to punish the applicant.
The charge in Pretoria flows from Carrim’s failure to appear before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which he attributed to illness. His arrest followed at OR Tambo International Airport on October 16, where he was intercepted while, by his account, travelling to Dubai on a pilgrimage.
The conditions are tight. Carrim’s passport stays with the investigating officer until the trial is finished and his testimony before the Madlanga Commission is finalised. His legal practitioner must report in person to the commission within 48 hours of his release to arrange his next appearance before the inquiry. He must report weekly to a police station. Curlewis warned that breaching any condition could bring a warrant for his arrest.
The Musina case is the reason the bail does not open the cell door. There Carrim faces charges of attempted theft of motor vehicles, fraud, uttering and money laundering, arising from two Absa vehicles intercepted at the Beitbridge border post in July 2026. He has not been convicted on any of these charges, and the allegations against him have yet to be tested in court.
The Madlanga Commission is the judicial inquiry examining the July 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and the security and intelligence failures around it. A witness who does not appear when summonsed puts the commission’s work at risk, and the Commissions Act exists precisely to give an inquiry the power to compel attendance. That is the public interest the Pretoria charge protects, and it is separate from whatever the Musina allegations eventually establish.
As Sunday World reported on October 28, the bail ruling followed the State’s failed bid to reopen proceedings and the court’s finding that the new material would not affect bail. Sunday World’s account of the bail terms and the Musina return date matches the record set out above.
What the record does not answer: the court has not pronounced on the merits of the Musina charges, and there is no finding before the public that Carrim is guilty of anything. The next dated step is the Musina Magistrate’s Court on October 30, when his bail in that matter is due to be heard. Until then, the R100,000 in Pretoria buys him conditions, not liberty.
