“They wanted me to kill you. But I will not be used.”
Those, according to Fadiel Adams, were the words former gang boss Faik Moses allegedly conveyed to him after being approached about killing him.
Adams, the National Coloured Congress leader, told the Madlanga commission of inquiry on Tuesday that he had reported the alleged threat and that investigators had obtained potentially significant evidence, including a recording and a statement from Moses.
“They’ve got a statement from Mr Moses saying, “Yes, I do get the impression that they wanted me to hurt this man,” Adams told the commission.
He alleged that the information pointed to a plot in which Cape Town DA councillor JP Smith was implicated.
“They’ve got a three-minute or four-minute recording of Mr Moses speaking to me, not denying that this is what happened.”
Adams said the commercial crimes unit had investigated the matter and sought access to phones to establish whether the alleged communications were genuine.
READ: ‘I was untruthful’- Fadiel Adams concedes at Madlanga
But, he said, investigators were unable to secure a warrant. For Adams, the alleged failure to obtain the warrant had profound consequences.
“So fighting corruption in the City of Cape Town means that next time I walk into Manenberg, there is a bullet waiting for me.”
‘Hired gun’ label
The testimony then broadened into a confrontation with KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who Adams said had portrayed him and the NCC as a hired gun for criminal cartels.
“When Gen Mkhwanazi makes the assertion that I am a hired gun because I lay charges, I need you to understand, commissioners that this is something I’ve been doing for years.”
Adams said reporting alleged corruption was precisely what he believed a responsible citizen should do, even when doing so carried personal risks.
“So, when Lt-Gen Mkhwanazi claims that Fadiel Adams or the NCC are hired guns for criminal cartels, the criminal cases that I’ve opened against those cartels, at great risk to myself, because I know who I’m dealing with mean nothing? Because you have to remember the City of Cape Town is the municipality that is notorious for giving big tenders to gang bosses,” Adams added.
‘I take offence to it’
He was particularly aggrieved at the suggestion that he was acting on behalf of criminal interests.
“I take offence to it,” Adams told the commissioners, saying he believed he deserves more than credit than Mkhwanazi in acting on information about crime.
“Because in my view, I have done more than he has about crime that he’s known about,” said Adams.
Adams will be back on Thursday for questioning.
- Fadiel Adams testified to the Madlanga commission that former gang boss Faik Moses was allegedly asked to kill him but refused.
- Investigators obtained a statement from Moses and a recording suggesting he acknowledged the request to harm Adams.
- Adams alleged that Cape Town DA councillor JP Smith was implicated in the plot to kill him.
- The commercial crimes unit sought to access phones for further investigation but failed to secure a warrant.
- Adams confronted KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, denying accusations that he and the National Coloured Congress acted as "hired guns" for criminal cartels.
