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National Coloured Congress (NCC) MP Fadiel Adams has admitted to the Madlanga commission his allegation about corruption case dockets that he had opened against top crime intelligence officers going missing was based on hearsay. Adams told the Madlanga commission on Wednesday he never verified the information he received from a retired police general before making the damning allegation that dockets had gone missing. He immediately escalated the matter to suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu.Adams opened cases against the top cops, including police crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, alleging he was involved in corruption, but the cases have now collapsed and prosecution is expected to be withdrawn by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) this week. Adams, whose allegations triggered the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption’s (Idac’s) case against police crime intelligence generals, told the commission he opened corruption cases in Gauteng after not receiving a satisfactory response from the Western Cape. Adams opened the cases in Gauteng a day or two after opening similar reports in the Western Cape. During cross-examination, Adams changed tack and said he opened the cases in Gauteng after the late antigang unit Maj-Gen André Lincoln told him the dockets were “intercepted”. Adams alleged that Lincoln called to tell him before 8pm on the day he opened the cases. Evidence leader Lee Segeels-Ncube took Adams through the docket, showing police wrote a note on the docket that day at 8.05pm, suggesting the docket was still in the station.Without verifying with the police station whether the dockets were intercepted, Adams called former Western Cape commissioner Lt-Gen Thembisile Patekile, who told him an investigation would ensue. Adams said he found Patekile’s response “unsatisfactory” because he was in a “hurry” to move the matter. He travelled to Gauteng, opened the cases and wrote to Mchunu that the dockets had been intercepted.Quizzed why he did not verify the information before making the allegation, Adams told the commission he trusted Lincoln. Lincoln had been retired for three years at the time and was no longer in the police force.“My recollection is that the dockets disappeared on the same day. I remember the general calling saying, ‘they have intercepted your docket’,” he said.Adams shifted the responsibility for explaining the “missing dockets” claim to former police inspectorate head Lt-Gen Peter Jacobs.“The best person to explain when the dockets went missing would be Jacobs. I understand what you are saying is that at 8.05pm they were still working on the docket. General Jacobs is the one they found the dockets with in Pretoria.”KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi labelled the case against Khumalo as an attempt to weaken the police team investigating serious cases, including those against murder accused Katiso Molefe and attempted murder accused Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala. Mkhwanazi questioned the basis of Adams’ allegations about the dockets.“When Gen Mkhwanazi claims that Fadiel Adams or the NCC are hired guns for criminal cartels … for me to be labelled as a hired gun or a conduit for cartels or whatever it is that is going on in his head, I take offence to it because I, in my view, have done more than he has about crime that is known about,” said Adams. Mkhwanazi’s evidence before the commission was that MPs, whom he did not identify, were involved in criminal syndicates.Mkhwanazi, however, told the commission that Adams had access to classified crime intelligence information and had used it “recklessly”. Adams denied having access to classified crime intelligence documents but admitted he found a “top secret” document about Maj-Gen Nozipho Madondo, head of the police crime intelligence analysis centre.Adams will continue testifying on Thursday.Business Day
