Madlanga inquiry reveals lengths Fadiel Adams took to have Khumalo and top cops arrested

When National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams opened a case against crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo and other top cops, accusing them of wrongdoing, the SAPS refused to take the matter further, saying there was no case and that allegations he made against them were based on hearsay.

This was after he had opened six cases about the same matter at different police stations in Cape Town and Soweto.

However, after the SAPS declined to pursue the matter, Adams then approached Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) with the same allegations, and that led to the arrest of police crime intelligence head Khumalo and his colleagues.

This was revealed at the Madlanga Commission on Thursday when evidence leader Adv Mahlape Sello revealed the lengths Adams went to have Khumalo and several senior crime intelligence officials arrested.

According to Sello, the SAPS legal department in December 11 2024 found that allegations against Khumalo and his co-accused were largely based on hearsay, vague and lacked the necessary elements to support criminal charges.

Reading from the legal opinion, Sello said: “[The report] states that the complainant statements were superficial, based on hearsay and did not contain all the elements of the alleged offences.

“It further details the communications with the complainant and the attempts made to obtain evidence which the complainant alleged to be in possession of. These attempts proved unsuccessful. The current information contained is scanty and too vague.”

According to the report, investigators first needed to identify the appropriate charges before determining whether all the legal elements of those offences were present in the dockets. However, the dockets were found to contain insufficient information and unsubstantiated allegations.

The legal opinion was finalised after Adams complained directly to suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu that police were interfering with investigations into his complaints.

Evidence before the commission showed that, within a day, Adams opened three criminal cases in Cape Town against Khumalo and other senior crime intelligence officials before travelling to Orlando police station in Johannesburg, where he opened three more dockets based on the same allegations.

In one of the cases, Adams alleged that Khumalo and other officials manipulated promotion and security vetting processes to improperly benefit a civilian employee at BMW, later identified as Dineo Mokwele.

Another complaint alleged that crime intelligence officials had covered up misconduct, while a third claimed that head of intelligence analysis Maj-Gen Nosipho Madondo failed a polygraph test in July 2024 and that head of security vetting Brig Phindile Ncube ensured the matter was neither investigated nor acted upon.

Emails read into the record showed the Cape Town dockets were all opened on October 29 2024, within minutes of one another.

“What is important there for my purpose is the dates on which [the cases were] opened. One of the dockets in Cape Town was opened on October 29 at 2:30, the next one is October 29 at 14:30 and the third one is at 14:30,” Sello said.

He then went to Gauteng were he opened three more.

Two days later, [November 1 2024] Adams wrote to Mchunu informing him that he had opened cases in both Cape Town and Orlando. He claimed he had been told there was a modus operandi within SAPS to interfere with investigations and asked the minister to intervene.

Mchunu’s chief of staff Cedrick Nkabinde escalated the matter to the office of the national commissioner.

The matter was then dealt with internally and went through different offices before going to inspectorate, who found the allegations to be hearsay but still referred it to legal.

A report subsequently submitted to Mchunu found no prima facie evidence of criminal conduct but stated that the matter had nevertheless been referred to the SAPS legal department for legal advice.

In January 2025 Adams submitted a sworn affidavit at Idac and the matter was handed to Brian Padayachee, who later arrested Khumalo, Mokwele, Madondo, Maj-Gen Philani Lushaba and Gauteng crime intelligence boss Josia Lekalakala for the employment of Mokwele.

At the commission, Padayachee faced tough questioning from chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga over whether Idac had sufficient grounds to investigate the complaint lodged by Adams.

Madlanga questioned whether the threshold set out in Section 27 of the NPA Act had been met, noting that Adams’ suspicions had not been substantiated.

Despite conceding that the threshold was not met, Padayachee maintained that the employment of Mokwele could result in manipulation of tenders or compromising of sensitive information.

The hearing continues.

Sowetan