Businessman Suliman Carrim has painted himself as a victim of Vusimuzi ‘Cat’ Matlala and Brown Mogotsi after investing R10 million in Medicare24 Tshwane District.
Carrim testified at the Madlanga commission on Monday about his relationship with Matlala, Mogotsi and suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
He confirmed a business relationship with Matlala connected to the R360 million South African Police Service (Saps) contract to provide medical services.
Carrim and Matlala meeting
Carrim said Matlala approached him in June 2024 to request a formal meeting.
“I know Vusi because we both operate in the private security sector. Prior to this, I had no engagements, relationships or dealings with Vusi beyond knowing, in a general sense, who he is,” explained Carrim.
“At the meeting, he told me he was a director of Medicare24 and that he had won this contract to provide medical services at Saps. He then needed funds to perform under the tender, as he had overcapitalised on the establishment of his tender and therefore encountered cashflow problems.
“He invited me to see his business premises in Pretoria. I visited the premises and confirmed it was state-of-the-art. I was impressed by what I had seen and could appreciate that Matlala could spend considerable amounts of money in the capitalisation of this tender.”
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He said he needed to confirm that Matlala’s contract was legit before he could inject funds into the business. This is when he roped in Mogotsi, whom he described as a “friend of mine”, to verify the contract, which he did.
“Vusi and I agreed that if I advance R10 million, I would be paid an additional amount of R10 million over a three-year period. The repayment would be made at an equivalent of 10% of all payments received until the amount of R20 million was paid.”
‘No payment’
After July 2024, Carrim said he would contact Matlala to find out if he had signed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between Saps and Medicare24 and when he could expect to receive it.
However, Matlala experienced delays in receiving the SLA from Saps, but this did not concern Carrim, as Medicare24 had already commenced rendering services to them.
“Towards the end of 2024, we had still not got any payments in, from what Vusi told me. I began pressing Vusi to provide me with invoices and payment details from Saps. At this stage, I was becoming despondent due to the non-payment from Vusi.”
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In January 2025, Matlala allegedly contacted Carrim to request additional funds to service the tender.
“I advised Vusi that I could not provide further funding as I had not received payments. I was concerned that the R10 million had been advanced, and I had not received a single payment.”
In February 2025, payments started trickling in, he said, and by mid-March 2025, he received a net payment of R1.7 million.
This was the last of the payments, as Matlala later sent Carrim a message informing him about the cancellation of the contract.
Brown Mogotsi’s strategy
Carrim informed Mogotsi about the latest developments, to which he responded with a strategy to get Matlala to cough up the remaining amount.
“Brown advised me that in order to keep Vusi, I should inform him [Vusi] that I have a good and direct relationship with the minister [Senzo Mchunu] and his office. I advised Brown that this was a joke because I had no relationship with either the minister or his office,” he explained.
“Brown’s reasoning was that I should make Vusi believe that I have a relationship with the minister’s office and that we would communicate directly with the minister’s office if and when required. Brown was clear that this was calculated to make Vusi believe that my involvement and assistance with the minister’s office would be crucial, and therefore, Vusi would need to pay me my money.
“I confirm Brown was extremely confident about his strategy, and as I was desperate, I agreed to go along with it. All messages referred to in interactions with the minister and his office were sent to me by Brown, who advised me to send them to Vusi. I had no influence with the minister or any influence over him.”
Double agent?
What Carrim did not know was that Mogotsi and Matlala were communicating on the side about the same matter. It was only after Mogotsi’s testimony at the commission that he found out about their relationship.
“So, the same message that Brown sent to Vusi on 4 March, Brown sent me that message on 6 May, two months later, to send to Vusi, which I did. But I only realised this after the commission. It was clear that both of them were playing me, and I could not understand why Brown would advise me to resend it to Vusi. Thereafter, Vusi started to avoid me,” he said.
Every promise Brown made to Carrim concerning the involvement of the minister did not materialise either.
“I believe Brown was lying about the influence he had, and I myself have no direct relationship with the minister. I was advised by Brown to continue sending messages to Vusi about my relationship with the minister, which I did, but nothing came of it.
“Much later, I realised that Brown was misrepresenting his influence with the minister. I was quite upset about this because I had known Brown for a long time and had always assisted him with his foundations. In hindsight, it is clear Brown was playing me. I also suspect that he was not acting alone and that Vusi did so too. Vusi stopped responding to me around May 2025. I can confirm that I am out of pocket by R8.25 million. This excludes the profit of the money advanced to Medicare24.”
Carrim denied any links to Mchunu, Firoz Khan and Shadrack Sibiya.
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