National Coloured Congress leader and MP Fadiel Adams gave his testimony to the Ad Hoc Committee that is probing allegations that were made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Image: Image: Phando Jikelo /RSA Parliament
FADIEL Adams, an MP and the leader of the National Coloured Congress, said he had not authenticated classified documents before he laid criminal charges with the police against top officials of the Crime Intelligence unit, because he was not an investigator.
“I am not an investigator, just like General (Dumisani) Khumalo and General (Nhlanhla) Mkhwanazi. That is why we have investigators. If I was to investigate I probably would bark at the wrong tree,” Adams said.
He was responding to questions during his testimony before the Ad Hoc Committee that is probing the allegations that were made by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Adams said out of four classified Crime Intelligence documents that had been slipped under his office door, only one was marked.
Adams was one of the MPs Mkhwanazi accused of having access to classified information and of handling it recklessly.
Adams had opened criminal cases in the Western Cape and Gauteng when he found the documents.
He told the parliamentary inquiry that he came to his office one morning in the last week of October 2024 and found the documents in an envelope on the office floor.
“I assumed it was slipped under the door. I opened the envelope. Inside it there appeared to be evidence of criminality. It was evidence implicating senior people within SAPS.”
Adams said at the time there was no Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and he did not have access to the State Security Minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.
“I decided to lay criminal charges,” he told the committee.
Adams also said he had approached the late Anti-Gang Unit’s Andre Lincoln before opening the case docket at Grand Central Police Station in the Western Cape.
He said he did not hand over the document when he was asked for evidence.
“I said I will give it to the investigating officer when he calls. I did not want to hand over classified information to (just) anybody.”
Adams said he had been shocked to learn that the docket was collected by the provincial head office of the SAPS.
Pressed on why he did not bring the information to Parliament's Police Portfolio Committee, Adams said he did not do so, as there had been an ongoing fight over the classification of documents.
“My classification of crime is a crime. The Constitution makes no provision for classification of crime, and therefore I was going to do this one way, whatever the result.’
Adams said he had considered the possibility of being set up and the expectation that he would run to the media.
“On the flipside this could be real and the best people to make that call are SAPS and that is why I took it there.”
He recounted that Lincoln had warned him that he should walk away because people could die before the matter went to court.
“He said son, open the case in another province and see what happens. I flew to Johannesburg and opened the same case at Orlando and Langlaagte stations.
“When I was there I would not leave until I got a case number. The next day I emailed the suspended Minister (Senzo) Mchunu. I said to the minister that the documents were irregularly collected in Cape Town. I did not know the cause of action the minister was to take,” said Adams.
He said he demanded from Mchunu that the matter be investigated by a body outside SAPS.