National Coloured Congress leader and MP Fadiel Adams was arrested on Tuesday afternoon at his house at the Parliamentary Village in Cape Town, hours after the Police’s Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) called on him to present himself at his nearest police station in connection with a case of fraud and defeating and or obstructing the course of justice.
Police had issued a J50 warrant of arrest for Adams.
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe says the warrant relates to serious allegations that he interfered with ongoing investigations into the murder of the late ANC Youth League Leader, Sindiso Magaqa.
“Through investigations, the task team discovered that Mr Adams interfered with the now convicted and sentenced hitman at a very sensitive and advanced stage of the police’s investigation.”
Mathe says police had gone through extensive efforts to locate Adams, including visiting multiple addresses associated with him.
Adams has previously said that he is willing to cooperate with authorities, but raised concerns about the legality of a police operation in which his former home in Mitchells Plain was raided over the weekend.
On Sunday, Adams accused police of intimidation and unlawful conduct, claiming that no warrant was produced during the raid. He says he intends to take legal action against those involved.
Mathe says arrangements were made with his attorney to hand himself over on Monday, 4 May 2026, at the Cape Town Central Police Station, but he has not cooperated.
She says Adams was scheduled to appear before a KwaZulu-Natal court, but failed to do so.
Adams allegedly used to visit the hitman involved in the Sindiso Magaqa case in prison, which the police say he needs to account for.
The hitman, Sibusiso Ncengwa, was convicted after confessing to the murder of Magaqa and was sentenced to a 25-year prison term last July.
Later that same month, the PKTT arrested the former municipal manager of the Umzimkhulu Local Municipality, whom Ncengwa had identified as the mastermind behind Magaqa’s killing. That case is still ongoing.
