‘I’m about to get whipped by Judge Madlanga again’ – Tough start to Fadiel Adams’ testimony
· Citizen
It was a tough start for suspended member of parliament and National Coloured Congress (NCC) leader Fadiel Adams at the Madlanga commission, where he made several concessions about his earlier comments.
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Normally, the commission allows the witness to read through their statement without interruption. However, on Wednesday, commission chairperson retired Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga changed tack, questioning Adams about statements he made during his previous testimony on 11 August.
During his previous appearance, Adams said he had missed emails sent to him, including the commission’s Rule 3 notice, which was sent to him in October 2025, because of a malfunctioning laptop.
He said he saw the Rule 3 notice for the first time only three months ago. However, this has turned out to be false.
Fadiel Adams: ‘Yes…no…I’m sorry’
On Wednesday, Adams confirmed that during his last appearance on 11 August, he said he had not received emails from the commission.
He also confirmed that he said the first time he received the Rule 3 notice was only three months ago.
“Now, and this is quite crucial, bearing in mind that you said that you only saw the October communication three months ago. 14 days later, that is on 14 October 2025, you responded to this communication by means of an email that is at page 5,” explained Madlanga.
“Let us go to page 5. Towards the foot of the page, do you see your response there? In your response of 14 October 2025, you request to make your submissions 72 hours after the testimony of General Khumalo. Now, if you responded to the Commission’s Rule 3 notice only 11 days after it was sent to you, your response, as I said, being on 14 October 2025, you were not truthful when you said you received notice, or you only saw the email communication three months ago. Am I correct? You were not truthful.”
‘Confusion’
Adams apologised for the “confusion” caused regarding the Rule 3 notice.
“However, I will admit, chairperson, that all this confusion regarding the emails and my correspondence is entirely my fault. I could have done better, and I should have done better. My recollection of the email referring to section three pertains to the one that comes afterwards. I did get my dates mixed. And for that, I profusely apologise,” said Adams.
“Chairperson, in response, in respect of the email mentioned, I was referring to the follow-up emails that I saw later, not this one right here, because I responded to this email.”
Madlanga continued: “Now I will repeat my question for the third time, and I will say, so it was untruthful of you to say that you received or you only saw the communication of October 2025 for the first time three months ago.”
“In respect of, yes, chairperson, that now that I have all the emails, even my response in front of me, yes, the information I submitted was wrong. It was untruthful. Yes, chairperson. I will be honest with you. Now that I look at it, and now that I replay your question to me on the 11th, if I’d had this bundle in front of me, the answer would have been different,” admitted Adams.
He also admitted to seeing “some” of the emails sent from April 2026 reminding him to file his statement.
‘I’m about to get whipped’
Adams further complained that he was not given enough time to review the documents the commission sent on Tuesday.
“There were two batches of emails that came. The first batch came at 12 o’clock at night on Monday. The other one came in the afternoon on Tuesday.”
However, evidence leader Advocate Lee Segeels-Ncube said what the commission sent to Adams on Tuesday night were his own documents.
“As far as I know, the correspondence bundle was sent to Mr Adams on Monday. What was sent to him yesterday was documentation that he had sent to the commission. We had to collate it into bundles and send it back to him. So everything that he received yesterday is his documents. Everything the commission gave to Mr Adams was sent to him on Monday via a link,” explained Seegels-Ncube.
‘Not enough time’
Adams said he did not have enough time to go through the documents as he had been travelling.
“I booked my flight for Joburg for six o’clock Monday morning and arrived here at roughly eight o’clock and took a meeting at half past eight. I came out of that meeting, and my PA had left a hundred messages for me that Madlanga has sent you a bundle. The commission, not Madlanga. Oh, the Madlanga commission. Sorry, sorry. I’m about to get whipped by Judge Madlanga again,” explained Adams.
“So in all honesty, chairperson, I did see, but it was very icy. I didn’t have hard copies because I didn’t have a printer. I’m reading it from a cell phone because my laptop, again, is giving me issues. So it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. But I did try to go through it as well as I could, best as I could.
“The problem was, chairperson, if these things had come at nine o’clock in the evening, I could have cancelled my flight. I could have stayed the day. I could have done better. And I’m not throwing mud at anyone. I’m just saying if I received it earlier, just a little bit earlier, I could have done so much better.”
However, Madlanga told Adams that the documents he received on Monday corresponded to what he had said on 11 August.
“This correspondence became necessary only because of what you said on 11 August 2026. Had you not said anything about not receiving emails from October of 2025, we would not be having this correspondence filed before us,” said Madlanga.