Sema Fonkem 11 May 2026

National Coloured Congress (NCC) leader and Member of Parliament, Fadiel Adams was arrested on Tuesday, May, 05, 2026 and has been reprimanded in detention.

Adams was apprehended at his home in Pelican Park, South of Cape Town by the Political Killing Task Team (PKTT) on charges of fraud and defeating or obstructing the course of justice. He was arrested on a J50 warrant after failing to appear at the nearest police station on May 04, 2026.

In 2018, while Adams was serving as the co-founder and National Spokesperson of Gatvol Capetonian, a non-profit organisation fighting for rights of coloured persons of Khoisan origin, he stated in an eNCA interview that people who were born outside of the Western Cape province before 1994, the year which South Africa gained independence must leave the Western Cape province.

Adams accuses migrants from Eastern Cape province of relocating to the Western Cape to occupy lands and take over jobs he believed should be given to coloured people also experiencing hardship. Although he did not mention any specific race in his statement, it was evident that his warnings were directed at the black population, which form the large proportion of those seeking employment and resettlement in Cape Town.

During the eNCA interview, Adams accused the South African government of leveraging the influx of black people into the Western Cape to exclude coloured people from economic opportunities.

Adams’ statements sparked discussions on racial segregation and division and he did not understand that he was indirectly denying black South Africans the right to move freely in their country.

In March 2023, while serving as a leader of the National Coloured Congress party which he found in 2020, Adams made derogatory remarks about City of Cape Town Manager Lungelo Mbandazayo, during Facebook Live broadcasts.

“The city manager, in case you didn’t know, is Lungelo Mbandazayo. We presume the man is from the Eastern Cape. We understand that he may not care about coloured people or the Cape Flats. It is generally what you get when you hire from without,” Adams said.

The South African Equality Court ruled that Adams’ comments were racially offensive, unfair discrimination, hate speech, and harassment. Adams was ordered to apologise to Mbandazayo as a result but remained unapologetic.

Adams’ May 2026 arrest comes after it was found that he has been visiting and interviewing Sibusiso Ncengwa, the hitman sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in July 2025 for the murder of African National Congress (ANC) political party Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa.

Before Adams was criminally charged for interfering with investigations, he accused South African Police Service (SAPS) for escorting Magaqa’s killers to the crime scene and the Crime Intelligence department of providing the Ak47 weapon used in the 2017 murder. He made these allegations public while appearing at the Parliamentary ad hoc committee on March 04, 2026.

Pinetown Magistrate’s Court has halted Adams’s release application and he will remain behind bars while the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) prepares an argument and evidence for its opposition to the bail.