National Coloured Congress leader and MP Fadiel Adams has accused senior police generals of hiding behind classification rules to shield alleged wrongdoing within the SA Police Service (SAPS).
Adams made the remarks during testimony before parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating allegations of criminal infiltration, corruption and political interference in the criminal justice system. The committee was established after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi made wide-ranging allegations during a media briefing in July 2025.
Mkhwanazi has accused Adams of illegally obtaining, possessing and mishandling confidential crime intelligence information. Adams rejected the claim during his testimony.
“My understanding: classification of a crime is a crime,” Adams told the committee, adding “the generals hide behind classification”.
Adams told MPs in the last week of October 2024 he arrived at his parliamentary office and discovered an envelope on the floor that appeared to have been slipped under his office door.
Inside were documents that appeared to show criminal activity within the SAPS crime intelligence division.
Adams said he was unsure what to do with the documents. At the time there was no joint standing committee on intelligence to which he could report the material and he was concerned the documents might be fraudulent.
He said he sought advice from the late former anti-gang unit head Maj-Gen Andre Lincoln, who advised him to hand the information to police so it could be investigated confidentially.
On October 30 2024 Adams opened criminal cases at Grand Central police station in Cape Town against crime intelligence head Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo, his deputy Maj-Gen Madondo and the division’s CFO Maj-Gen Lushaba.
Adams told the committee he did not immediately hand over the documents when opening the cases because he feared they might be classified and did not want them seen by anyone other than the assigned investigator.
He said Lincoln later informed him the dockets had been collected by the provincial office, warning the matter might be covered up. Adams subsequently opened the same cases at Orlando and Langlaagte police stations in Gauteng to ensure they were formally recorded.
Adams said he also contacted then police minister Senzo Mchunu and asked that the allegations be investigated by someone outside the police service before referring the matter to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption.
During questioning by evidence leaders, Adams was challenged on why he had not attempted to verify the authenticity of the documents before acting on them.
He said he did not have the capacity to investigate the claims himself.
“I am not an investigator,” Adams said. “If I had to investigate this thing I would have barked up the wrong tree. I gave it to the experts, the SA Police Service.”
Adams said only one of the documents he received was marked as classified.
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