A member of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police has laid charges against four top members of the South African Police Force. He is Fadiel Adams, who is also the Leader of the National Coloured Congress (NCC]. The officers include Crime Intelligence Head Major General Dumisani Khumalo. In this interview with BizNews, Adams details allegations against the top officers. He also reveals what he was told in Westville Prison by a former Task Force member who has been on remand for almost five years on a charge of defeating the ends of justice after he refused to carry out a political arrest. “The South African Police Services appears to be a mafia. It appears to be the biggest gang in the country,” Adams says. Meanwhile, he is in no doubt that he will face retaliation – and may even be killed – for taking action. “Now when I took this thing up, I was asked by a very good friend of mine, are you sure you want to do this? I said, why would you ask me this? I have to do this. He said to me, Boeta, you’re not going up against the gang boss. A gang boss has two, 300 soldiers. These people have a hundred thousand. He said, SARS will be in your pockets tomorrow morning. Charges will be trumped up against you. Your name will be smeared in the media. I said, they need to do what they need to do because this is our police services, not his. If people are misusing secret state funds to buy cars, to establish political task teams, to have political opponents killed, to have good policemen locked up, then the rest of us need to speak up about it.”
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Extended transcript of the interview ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
Chris Steyn (00:02.819)
A member of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police has laid charges against four top members of the South African Police Force. He is Mr. Fadiel Adams, who is also the Leader of the National Coloured Congress, and he is with us now. Welcome, Mr. Adams.
Fadiel Adams (00:19.746)
Good morning Chris, thank you very much for this opportunity.
Chris Steyn (00:23.533)
Mr Adams, who have you laid charges against?
Fadiel Adams (00:27.15)
Four of the top generals in the country are Major General Lushaba, Major General Madondo, Brigadier Ncube and Major General Khumalo. I’ve laid charges against these four officials for various crimes, various allegations rather, and it’s up to the courts now.
Chris Steyn (00:50.295)
Okay, are you in a position to give us the allegations in each case?
Fadiel Adams (00:55.721)
I will say as much as I can without compromising the cases because obviously we don’t want these people tried by media.
But General Lushaba, it is alleged, on the 5th of August 2022, engaged a prostitute and she took his service pistol, his cell phone and his state computer. All of these are state-issued. He laid a criminal charge and she was found. And when the story came out, it was smothered. There were no cases of negligence laid against the general and his tech was the firearm, the cell phone and the laptop was replaced allegedly using secret police funds, COVID funds. This was a massive cover-up and we believe that the general does have a case to answer. So that is the one case.
General Madondo, who is the 2IC of Crime Intelligence failed the polygraph. She has no clearance to work at this level.
And then Brigadier Ncube, who was tasked with investigating the failure of the polygraph, never did a job. She just let it slide.
And then against Major General Khumalo, who is the Head of Crime Intelligence, we’ve laid charges of nepotism and cronyism.
It’s a sad state because I can tell you now, Crime Intelligence is the nerve center, it’s the pulse, it’s the core of the police services. If this unit is compromised, this country is no good. We’ll never win the war against crime. Remember this criminality on the level that South Africans are exposed to it and used to, it can’t flourish without help, without assistance from SAPS. It can’t, it’s impossible. Now we can’t have people who may be as compromised as these allegations before us running the nerve center of SAPS. It doesn’t make any sense. Who’s protecting them? It must come out. Who’s refused to prosecute, who’s refused to investigate? It must come out because these are very, very serious allegations. In any well-run corporation, all four of these people would have been suspended on full pay until the end of an investigation. Why this has never happened, somebody needs to tell us. But it gets worse and you know what?
Chris Steyn (03:14.963)
No, Mr. Adams, earlier you spoke to me about a Singapore trip. I don’t know if we are going to talk about that on air.
Fadiel Adams (03:23.966)
I’m happy to talk about it. Last year, no I’m sorry this year, Major General Madondo and Major General Lushaba went on a two-day joust to Singapore. The purpose of the trip was to go to a convention to go and see the latest cyber techniques for fighting crime. My question is why did 14 people have to go? Why do we take two clerks along? When I tell you clerks, I’m talking about constables. I question the 1.5 million rands value for a two-day trip to Singapore. We bought none of the equipment. As far as I know, none of the 14 people that came back shared any of the experience with SAPS. There’s been no skills transfer. Whatever they may have learned on this exhibition, it was never spread amongst the rest of the country. So we are questioning the spin. Was this a buddy-buddy trip to Singapore, all expenses paid, all of it 5-star in an era of cost containment. There are police stations that do not have toilet rolls. Yet we spend 14 people, 5-star, to Singapore for 2 whole days. We are asking where is the value in it to the taxpayer? Because if you came back and said these cell phones will help us fight crime, therefore we purchasing a hundred, I said okay, but there’s no value. He didn’t buy a pencil. He didn’t purchase a thing that’s going to make me, Chris, or our children safer.
Fadiel Adams (05:05.672)
Major General Kumalo must come and answer.
Chris Steyn (05:11.769)
Now Mr Adams, you had to go to two police stations in order to get these charges laid. What happened there?
Fadiel Adams (05:18.282)
So I went to lay the charges at the Grand Central Police Station in town. I’ve got very good relations with the brigadier there, with the officers there. But then a source came back to me and told me, Boeta, the docket has disappeared. I said, what? He said, I’m telling you, I have good information that the docket is not here. So the next morning, I took a plane to Johannesburg to Orlando Police Station and I laid the charges there and I waited for my case numbers before I left because I was not going to run the risk of the docket may be possibly, probably disappearing again.
Because understand that we live in a country where dockets disappear daily. People are forever coming out and say, I laid a charge and the docket’s gone. So it’s not beyond the realm of possibility or probability that a docket can disappear, especially with the case of this level.
Just imagine I live in Cape Town. I’m entitled to lay the charge in Cape Town and I’m entitled to expect an outcome in Cape Town. But if the docket disappears, I have the resources to go to Johannesburg, to go and lay it there, to make it hard for the docket to disappear. Other people don’t. Normal people, normal tax-payeing citizens, normal unemployed people, if they lay a charge and the docket disappears, what recourse do they have?
This is the state of our police services. This is why 10 children die on the Cape Flats a day. This is why I believe that the Mafia that’s being prosecuted is the wrong one. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be prosecuted. I’m saying there’s a bigger mafia player. I’m telling you that if Crime Intelligence is run properly wiith fit and proper people, with people with unblemished records, with unimpeachable character, the crime levels in this country will drop immediately. But because it’s not, we’ve got a problem here.
Now, I need people to understand that you can make a thousand dockes disappear, not this one…
Fadiel Adams (07:20.958)
because this is a different type of character laying the charges here. If I am required to walk to the National Commissioner’s office in Pretoria to go and lay a charge, that is what I will do, because we take these allegations very seriously.
Remember, these allegations don’t fall from the air. These are folders given to us by policemen who are concerned with the state of the organisation that they love. These are men that bleed blue that are saying these guys are killing us.
So we as the NCC are taking this action because there are 300 parties on the ballot, we are brand new. I have to ask, what are the rest of you’re doing?
Chris Steyn (08:14.073)
Now earlier this morning you sent me a video of an interview you conducted with a former Task Team member who has been on remand in prison for almost five years. Tell us what that is all about, Mr. Adams.
Fadiel Adams (08:29.29)
The sad thing is that he’s not the only one. But I will not mention his name for his safety. But I went to Westville because I was directed to this gentleman by another policeman who cares about the state of SAPS. And I went to Westville prison in my capacity as a Member of Parliament and I asked to see a specific prisoner and I wanted to see him alone. I said to the…let me first commend the staff at the Westville Prison for doing a very professional job under very trying circumstances, especially the Deputy Commissioner of KZN. But I was put in touch with this man and I spoke to him and you know I left Westville Prison and there were tears running down my face because I had an in-depth meeting with a few people.
But one story, I still can’t get it out of my ear. He says to me, Mr. Adams, I was called into the office of Brigadier Khumalo and he wanted me to arrest a mayor. And I said to him, there’s no evidence that justifies an arrest. And he says to me, General Khumalo says that Minister at the time, Bheki Cele, does not care about the evidence. He wants the media narrative. Go and arrest this woman. And he said, I won’t do it. I’m not a politician. I’m a policeman. Weeks later, he was arrested for defeating the ends of justice.
Now, let me explain something to you. I wasn’t always a good boy. I’ve been to court maybe 50 times in my life. No case runs for longer than 12 or 13 months without the State bringing evidence before the judge kicks it out. No man lies on remand awaiting trial for four and a half years for a non-violent crime. I believe that this poor officer is a political pawn and I believe that certain people that work for the justice system are part of this Mafia. If you listen to this officer and if you listen to the testimonies of the people that speak of him, they’re saying that this man did nothing wrong. This man simply refused to obey an illegitimate instruction. He said, no, I’m not a politician, I am a policeman. Do not ask me to do this, General.
Fadiel Adams (10:56.033)
Next thing you know he’s in jail for four and a half years. Do you know what happens to a policeman in jail? They know what happens to a policeman in jail. What they may or have allegedly done to this poor officer. That’s a crime. And we will pursue this through the courts, through the JSC, through every means available. But that officer will receive justice. Because I’m understanding. If you look at what happened to General Andre Lincoln a few years ago, it’s more or less the same thing…
Fadiel Adams (11:33.579)
that if a policeman tries to do his job, that if he defies illegal orders, you’ll end up in court and possibly in jail.
Now, tell me, what kind of attitude would I have if I was a decent human being and a good policeman and I was told to do something if I know what the consequences may be if I refuse?
Fadiel Adams (11:58.795)
The South African Police Services appears to be a mafia. It appears to be the biggest gang in the country. Now when I took this thing up, I was asked by a very good friend of mine, are you sure you want to do this? I said, why would you ask me this? I have to do this. He said to me, Boeta, you’re not going up against the gang boss. A gang boss has two, 300 soldiers. These people have a hundred thousand.
Fadiel Adams (12:20.693)
He said, SARS will be in your pockets tomorrow morning. Charges will be trumped up against you. Your name will be smeared in the media. I said, they need to do what they need to do because this is our police services, not his. If people are misusing secret state funds to buy cars, to establish political task teams, to have political opponents killed, to have good policemen locked up, then the rest of us need to speak up about it.
I asked for the position to be on the Police Portfolio Committee because I was aware of the rot in SAPS. I was not aware that it runs this deep. That I was not prepared for. We go on about policemen receiving bribes, taking hundreds of rands from taxi drivers. And let me tell you that it’s wrong. It’s wrong. But when you factor in that a police constable earns peanuts in this country and is concerned about how he’s going to pay rent or the school taxi in the morning. What excuse does a general earning 150,000 in a month have?
Fadiel Adams (13:28.048)
We will get to the bottom of this. Let me assure you of that.
Chris Steyn (13:31.913)
Mr Adams, you seem 100% willing to bear the consequences of what you’re doing right now. But this is not the first time that you have been vilified for trying to bring corruption to light and for laying charges. Tell us what happened the last time.
Fadiel Adams (13:48.377)
Ma’am, the last time I came across fraud on this type of level, I took it to the mayor. I played a recording to the mayor of his head of law enforcement offering a 40 million bribe to a material witness in a case. I asked the mayor, where does this man get 40 million from? Who authorised this bribe? The mayor said, no I’m going to act on this. Send me the recording. I said to the mayor, I don’t trust you. I won’t give you the recording, but you’ve heard the recording. Now act. Geordin Hill-Lewis did not act. As a matter of fact, the next month, he brought a motion to council to pay for that same head of law enforcement’s legal bills when he was arrested for defeating the ends of justice. I thought, wow, what am I dealing with here? Then there’s a forensic report in that same issue relating to 349 million rands worth of fraud. The mayor looked at me in full council he stood up in line and said there’s no evidence of fraud in the report. None. He says there’s a few lapses, like 349 million rands worth of a few lapses. I said, okay.
We went ahead and we laid the criminal charges. The mayor said there are no politicians involved. Then Malusi Booi got arrested. Now the mayor is backpedaling. The city manager unlawfully cancelled contracts relating to the safety of the people of Cape Flats. And he’s about to get a scott free or maybe not.
This is not the first time we’ve gone after this type of thing. Last time we did this, the Democratic Alliance laughed at me and called me a madman. Told me I was dreaming of these figures. Now their colleagues are being locked up. Now people are preparing to go to jail for 15 years plus.
We don’t publish every allegation because every allegation is an allegation until a judge rules. Even the cases I’ve led, these people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. We stand by this, we believe in this. This is not something I suck out of my thumb, but if it appears that there’s prima facie evidence for people to come and state their case in court, then we will be fighting for their right for the day to be in court.
That’s what we are.
Chris Steyn (15:45.443)
Thank you.
Thank you. That was Mr. Fadiel Adams of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police speaking to BizNews after he laid charges against four top members of the South African Police Force. Thank you, Mr. Adams. And I’m Chris Steyn
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