By Johnathan Paoli
National Coloured Congress leader and MP Fadiel Adams was absent from Parliament’s Section 89 Impeachment Committee on Wednesday after beginning a 20-parliamentary-day suspension from debates and committee meetings earlier this week.
The committee was considering candidates for the position of evidence leader in its inquiry into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s handling of the Phala Phala matter when African Transformation Movement MP Vuyo Zungula questioned why Adams had not been called to participate in the vote.
Committee secretary Thembinkosi Ngema informed members that Adams’s suspension had taken effect on Monday, and that he would return to the committee after completing the sanction.
The sanction does not remove Adams from Parliament or terminate his membership of the National Assembly. It prevents him from taking part in parliamentary debates and committee meetings for 20 parliamentary days. His parliamentary salary and allowances will also be reduced by an amount equal to 20 days.
The suspension follows a finding by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests that Adams breached the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interests by publishing the personal contact details of a Democratic Alliance staff member on Facebook.
The complaint was lodged by DA chief whip George Michalakis after Adams posted a screenshot of an email containing the staff member’s email address and telephone numbers. Adams told the committee that he had not realised the screenshot contained personal information and apologised for the disclosure.
The ethics committee found that Adams had breached the code and treated an earlier social media-related violation as an aggravating factor. It recommended that he be reprimanded, apologise to Parliament, serve the 20-day suspension and lose the corresponding portion of his salary and allowances.
The sanction is unrelated to Adams’s expected testimony before the Madlanga Commission or the criminal charges he faces in KwaZulu-Natal.
Adams remains scheduled to appear before the commission on Tuesday, 11 August, after correspondence between his legal representatives and the commission’s legal team. Commission spokesperson Jeremy Michaels confirmed the date during a media briefing last week.
His evidence is expected to focus on a complaint he submitted to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) concerning alleged fraud and corruption involving senior Crime Intelligence officials.
The commission has spent several weeks examining how IDAC obtained, assessed and acted on Adams’s Section 27 affidavit, and whether the investigation was properly authorised and supported by sufficient evidence.
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