Cape Town – Suspended Member of Parliament and National Coloured Congress (NCC) leader Fadiel Adams was confronted with email correspondence at the Madlanga Commission on Wednesday after inconsistencies emerged between his earlier evidence and the documents before the inquiry.
Adams appeared before the commission for a second time after initially testifying on 11 August.
Instead of allowing Adams to proceed uninterrupted through his statement, commission chairperson retired Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga questioned him about evidence he had previously given regarding correspondence from the commission.
During his earlier appearance, Adams said he had missed emails from the commission, including a Rule 3 notice issued to him in October 2025.
According to The Citizen, Adams had attributed the missed correspondence to problems with his laptop.
He had also told the commission that he only became aware of the Rule 3 notice about three months ago.
However, correspondence presented to the commission showed that Adams had received and responded to the notice in October 2025.
The commission confronted Adams with the October correspondence, including his response to the email.
Adams said he had forgotten about the exchange.
“Emails in the beginning are not even my strongest point. I genuinely forgot about this correspondence. I did. I’ve forgotten about other correspondence; I’ve forgotten my child’s birthday. These things happen due to the hours and the pressure that we work under,” Adams said.
According to Eyewitness News, Adams had previously claimed that his laptop had malfunctioned and had also suggested during a television interview that he had not been given enough time to prepare his submission.
He told the commission that he had been given only four days to complete his submission while his name was being discussed publicly.
[WATCH] Suspended MP Fadiel Adams says his lawyers have written to Parliament demanding a retraction of the statement regarding his laptop because Parliament told other lies. #MadlangaCommission pic.twitter.com/lX9KCkoVMM
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) August 19, 2026
“They, in essence, gave me four days to complete my submission, but I remember as I’m trying to complete my submission, people are still mentioning my name left, right, and centre on TV,” Adams said.
After being confronted with the October email and his response, Adams acknowledged that his earlier account was incorrect.
“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,” he said, according to The Citizen.
Adams said he had confused the dates and was referring to later correspondence when he previously spoke about the emails he had received.
“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,” he said.
“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,” Madlanga said.
Adams conceded that the information he had previously provided was incorrect.
“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,” he said.
Adams added that his answer would have been different had he had the full bundle of correspondence in front of him when he first appeared before the commission.
While accepting that his earlier evidence about the October 2025 correspondence was wrong, Adams also raised concerns about the amount of time he had been given to review documents ahead of Wednesday’s proceedings.
He told the commission that he had received two batches of emails, with the first arriving around midnight on Monday and the second being sent on Tuesday afternoon.
“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,” Adams said.
According to IOL, Adams also made a light-hearted remark during the exchange, telling Madlanga: “Commissioner [Justice Mbuyiseli] Madlanga, apart from my father, you are the only man that has given me a beating.”
The commission continued questioning Adams about his previous evidence, the Rule 3 notice and the correspondence relating to his submission.
The inquiry is expected to examine further discrepancies between Adams’s earlier testimony and the documentary evidence presented before the commission.
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Compiled by Glaan Sibuyi
