Suspended MP and National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams’ third day in the witness box at the Madlanga Commission opened with a dramatic shift in his evidence, as he conceded that a Section 27 affidavit before the inquiry may not be the document he originally submitted to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC).
The development has placed the authenticity and provenance of a key document at the centre of Adams’ testimony, with the commission now seeking the original referral he insists contained allegations about the Political Killing Task Team (PKTT) and a forklift matter.
Adams’ evidence on Friday contradicted his version from Thursday, when he was adamant about the contents and circumstances surrounding several aspects of his dealings with IDAC.
He told the commission that the Section 27 referral presented by IDAC was not the document he originally filed.
Adams said his original referral explicitly referred to the PKTT and the forklift matter, but those allegations do not appear in the affidavit currently before the commission.
The discrepancy left Adams struggling to explain how the two versions could exist.
“Advocate, if I can tell you honestly, I’m probably the most confused person in this room right now, because this is making me question my own sanity right now, but I know I put those things in there,” he said.
The evidence leader, Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube, took Adams through the disputed document after he had listened to a two-and-a-half-hour recording of his interactions with IDAC officials during Thursday’s adjournment.
Adams confirmed that the Section 27 referral affidavit commissioned by Felicia Solomons was his.
But he said he did not understand why the affidavit before the commission contained no reference to the PKTT or forklift allegations.
Under questioning, Adams eventually agreed with Segeels-Ncube that the affidavit currently before the commission was not the document he handed to IDAC official Dylan Perumal when they first met towards the end of November 2024.
He then made a serious allegation.
Adams claimed that someone at IDAC had altered his original statement and removed information from it.
He also raised the possibility that his signature may have been forged on the document submitted to the commission.
Adams acknowledged that the signature on the affidavit was his, but said he was not familiar with the contents of the document attributed to him.
He also questioned why his name had been misspelt in the paperwork.
The claims prompted the commission to zero in on the whereabouts of Adams’ alleged original document.
Co-commissioner Sandile Khumalo asked Adams where the Section 27 referral currently before the commission came from.
Adams pointed to former IDAC head Andrea Johnson, saying she would be the best person to explain its origins.
Chairperson Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga then took a practical step to test Adams’ version.
He asked Adams to use the tea adjournment to arrange for his office to send the Section 27 referral he says he personally signed and had commissioned.
But Adams said the desktop computer containing the document was not at his parliamentary office.
It was at his home.
He told the commission he would ask his wife to access the computer and send the document to the inquiry.
That document could become critical to the commission’s efforts to establish whether Adams’ allegations about the PKTT and forklift matter were contained in his original referral.
But the Section 27 dispute was only one of several inconsistencies confronting the commission.
Adams also changed his version of how he met a man known as Elvis, who assisted him when he went to Orlando police station to open a case.
On Thursday, Adams was adamant that he had met Elvis at the police station and said CCTV footage could support his version.
On Friday, he gave a different account.
Adams now says he met Elvis at a tyre shop before they travelled together to Orlando police station to lay charges. He claimed that he redirected the Uber.
The change became more significant when Segeels-Ncube put it to Adams that Elvis had a longstanding relationship with General Khan and that the two were friends.
Adams said he was unaware of the relationship.
The commission’s scrutiny of Adams follows Thursday’s decision to adjourn proceedings so that he could listen to the recording of his interaction with IDAC officials.
The recording was made by IDAC prosecutor Advocate Drushantha Ramsamy.
Adams has since told the commission that he intends to report Ramsamy to the Legal Practice Council (LPC) and lay criminal charges against her over the recording.
He said he no longer wanted selected portions of the recording played before the commission because he intended to pursue the matter in court.
Adams said the recording would instead be played in court as part of the criminal proceedings he intends to institute against Ramsamy.
He nevertheless maintained that Peter Jacobs had the right to investigate his allegations that his dockets had been intercepted.
Adams’ objection was that Jacobs should not have taken possession of the original dockets during the investigation.
The commission has previously heard that the dockets were moved to the Inspectorate in Pretoria after Adams’ complaint triggered an investigation.
But it is the Section 27 affidavit that has emerged as the defining issue of Adams’ third day in the witness box.
Adams appeared increasingly overwhelmed by the contradictions.
“Please forgive me, ek is deermakaar,” he told the commission.
At another point, he said he was confused by what he was seeing in relation to his Section 27 referral.
Madlanga’s request for the original document from Adams’ home computer could provide the commission with its first opportunity to compare the version Adams says he signed with the document submitted by IDAC.
For now, Adams remains adamant on one point: the PKTT and forklift allegations were in his original referral.
The commission has adjourned for tea.
