Fadiel Adams appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court for a bail application on 15 May.

• Fadiel Adams was granted R10 000 bail and warned not to interfere with the ongoing investigation.
• The State opposed bail, arguing that Adams was likely to interfere with witnesses.
• Adams’ counsel argued that his client’s outspoken character should not be grounds for refusing bail.

Member of Parliament and leader of the National Coloured Congress, Fadiel Adams, was granted R10 000 bail in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court.

He was arrested at the parliamentary precinct in Cape Town on 5 May and charged with fraud and defeating the ends of justice.

The charges stem from the long-running investigation into the murder of former ANC Youth League leader Sindiso Magaqa.

Adams is alleged to have interviewed an imprisoned suspect amid an ongoing police investigation.

While details of the charges levelled against Adams were presented to the court during the bail application, the magistrate, Wendalyn Robinson, said:

Adams is alleged to have gained a Metro Police escort to Westville Prison and had also been accompanied by a Hawks member into the prison.

In opposition to bail, the State said Adams was likely to interfere with witnesses in the case against him.

It presented evidence that he had already been in contact with the Hawks member while the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) was in Cape Town trying to trace him for his arrest.

It is alleged that, after numerous unanswered phone calls to the officer, Adams asked the officer to send him the statement he had made to the PKTT regarding his case.

READ | ‘F**k the court’: State slams Fadiel Adams over defiance of the law

However, in granting bail, Robinson said that, while it was apparent Adams was aware of the identity of the witness and also had the ability to access that witness, as an officer of SAPS, the witness “has certain safeguards which he can rely on”.

“It has also become apparent with evidence led that there will be other witnesses the State will rely on. What I gather is that they are in the employ of the State, either Correctional Services, Metro Police or the PKTT,” she said.

Robinson warned Adams, in granting him bail, not to contact any of the witnesses or interfere with the investigation, as part of his bail conditions.

She also noted evidence presented by the State regarding his behaviour, language and attitude toward law enforcement and the judiciary, as seen in videos of him played in court.

Robinson said:

“His contemptuous behaviour and attitude cannot be ignored; however, the court must be mindful that the State does have recourse in this regard to deal with this behaviour.”

After granting bail, she gave him a stern warning: “Respect the judiciary just as it has respected you.”

Before Robinson made her ruling on bail, Adams’ counsel, advocate Yuri Gangai, had described his client as someone with bravado who used strong language, adding that he should not be persecuted for his character.

“Adams does not use the most beautiful language; he is loud, says what he thinks and is afraid of no one. Nowhere in the Criminal Procedure Act does it say that those are conditions to refuse bail.”

He also argued that, at the time Adams contacted SAPS, he had approached the High Court for an order to compel the PKTT to disclose the warrant of arrest to his attorney.

“Adams was a man in the middle of litigation; it is not unusual to start bolstering a case by securing statements for his version of the truth. What Adams said to the witness was that he needed the statement, that he needed the truth to come out in terms of what happened from the moment they met and parted, and that he needed no favours. Does this sound like someone trying to hide the truth?” asked Gangai.

READ | MP Fadiel Adams denies allegations against him as bail application set to continue Friday

He did, however, concede that perhaps Adams was clumsy and had done this improperly.

“There were no threats, no pressure and no bribery of the witness.”

Addressing the comments Adams made in one of his videos, likening himself to Harrison Ford in the movie, The Fugitive, Gangai said his client had only said that because he considered the PKTT to be a rogue task team and, in the movie, Ford was being pursued by a team of rogue police.

“He remained publicly visible and did not hide, his actions were not the hallmarks of a genuine fugitive. A true fugitive disappears.”

The case was adjourned to 14 August for further investigation.