NCC rallies behind Fadiel Adams amid serious charges
NCC leader and MP Fadiel Adams appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court last week.
Image: Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers
The National Coloured Congress (NCC) has rallied behind its leader, Fadiel Adams, following his arrest on charges of obstructing the investigation into the murder of Sindiso Magaqa. Adams was taken into custody amid allegations that he interfered with the case.
The NCC has also raised concerns regarding Ian Cameron, who submitted an affidavit to the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) related to the investigation.
On Sunday, the NCC leadership held a media briefing to respond to the allegations of Adams’ arrest and called for due process to take its course.
Adams has been detained until Wednesday, after he initially appeared in court earlier in the week.
He is charged with two counts of defeating or obstructing the administration of justice and three counts of fraud. Adams was arrested in Cape Town on Tuesday.
At the centre of his arrest, Adams faces allegations of allegedly interfering with Magaqa’s murder case, the ANC Youth League leader was killed in 2017.
The State believes that Adams acted unlawfully under the guise of his MP status, by visiting Magaqa hitman, Sibusiso Ncengwa.
The National Coloured Congress held a media press conference in Westridge, Mitchell’s Plain. Pictured is the NCC's Secretary-General, Sakiena Frenchman.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
NCC Secretary-General, Sakiena Frenchman, said that there has been disinformation and misinformation, and that his arrest is merely a smear campaign “intended to cast a shadow and doubt on brazen alleged corruption, raised by him”.
“We are gravely concerned that this arrest, its merits and the events surrounding the actions of the SAPS task team, namely the Political Killing Task Team (PKTT) and their contingent of state prosecutors used to action their investigations, are fraught with intentional errors that contravene many national government laws and most importantly the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,” she said.
Frenchman said they “have not witnessed this level of attention for a schedule 1 offence in our democratic existence”.
The National Coloured Congress held a media press conference in Westridge, Mitchell’s Plain, addressing the recent arrest of their leader and Party members and community supporters gathered as leadership responded to the allegations, shared their position on the matter, and called for due process to take its course.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ Independent Media
The National Coloured Congress held a media press conference in Westridge, Mitchell’s Plain, addressing the recent arrest of their leader and Party members and community supporters gathered as leadership responded to the allegations, shared their position on the matter, and called for due process to take its course.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Newspapers
Frenchman said that Adams was fully within his rights when he visited Westville Prison to meet with Ncengwa. She said the statement Adams took from Ncengwa was for a parliamentary presentation to the Police Portfolio Committee, which he did in February 2025.
She also addressed the recent news that Cameron submitted an affidavit, which has seemingly cast doubt on Adams’ claims that the prison visits were conducted in an official parliamentary capacity.
According to media reports, Cameron said he met with members of the PKTT on January 23, this year, who informed him they were investigating allegations of defeating the ends of justice involving Adams.
Cameron has stated that Adams performed this oversight visit without his permission. Frenchman said this “doesn’t make it illegal”.
According to her, Cameron had sufficient time to report Adams more than a year ago, of the contravention of the Parliamentary rules, which is not a criminal statute of SA law.
Ian Cameron, DA MP and chairperson of the Police Portfolio Committee.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
Frenchman said that Cameron’s public complaint about Adams does not cancel Section 58 of the Constitution, “which states that Members are not liable to civil or criminal proceedings for anything they have submitted to the Parliament or any of its committees”.
She added that the PKTT had no right to enter the precinct of Adams’s Parliamentary Home in Pelican Park, where he was arrested due to the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act, Act No.4 of 2004, and the Parliamentary Villages Management Board Act 96 of 1998.
The act states that members of the security services may only enter the precincts of Parliament, which includes the residential villages, with the permission and under the authority of the speaker or chairperson.
“We will be requesting from the Speaker of Parliament as to whether the PKTT applied for permission to enter Parliament grounds, which was allowed by Colonel Mashele, ” she said.