The family of Sindiso Magaqa, the slain former ANC Youth League secretary-general, said it will not be swayed by the arrest of Fadiel Adams, viewing him instead as a small player in a much bigger conspiracy surrounding Magaqa’s assassination.
Instead, they see Adams’s arrest as a possible sideshow, insisting that those who orchestrated the killing remain untouched.
“We’re reiterating what we’ve been saying over the years that we’re demanding justice for Sindiso Magaqa. All other things happening in the periphery and sideshows we’re not interested in. It’s like someone chasing over a mosquito,” charged Thabiso Zulu, the family spokesperson and Magaqa’s long-time friend.
Adams, 49, a member of parliament who also serves on the portfolio committee on police, was arrested a week ago by members of the SAPS political task team.
At the time of his arrest, he was at the parliamentary village in Pelican Park, Cape Town. He was subsequently transported in a police van to KwaZulu-Natal, where he faced three charges of fraud and two charges of defeating the administration of justice.
At the centre of the state’s case are allegations that Adams made unauthorised trips from Cape Town to Durban on 2 November 2024 and 24 January 2025, during which he visited Westville Prison. The state alleges that Adams conducted separate interviews with two awaiting-trial inmates during the visits.
One of the inmates was Sibusiso Ncengwa, alleged to be a key figure and hitman in the high-profile assassination.
Ncengwa was last year sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment after entering into a plea bargain with the state and confessing to what had transpired. He said the group had received R120 000 as a deposit for the hit and were later promised lucrative municipal tenders but these promises never materialised, prompting him to come clean.
The state also alleges that Adams abused and misrepresented his status as an MP, misleading the SAPS and eThekwini Metro Police into escorting him in a convoy with blue lights from King Shaka International Airport to Westville Prison. According to the state,
Adams told prison officials he was conducting parliamentary oversight duties.
It is further alleged that Adams kept his Durban trips secret because he wanted to persuade Ncengwa to change his confession statement and implicate Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, the divisional commissioner of crime intelligence.
Sources claim Adams was working with individuals seeking to discredit Khumalo. Ncengwa had allegedly intended to reveal politicians and other role players behind the hit.
Zulu told the Mail & Guardian that the state had not proved that it genuinely wanted to resolve Magaqa’s assassination. He described Adams as a “sideshow” who was not directly linked to the killing itself.
“To prove itself, the state must go and arrest the people who procured the vehicle through a slush fund of crime intelligence. An AK-47 and a car were procured by the state. The SAPS members were involved during the time when the hit was carried out. They accompanied and shadowed the fellows that assassinated Magaqa,” he stated.
Zulu further explained: “We won’t entertain anyone else who wants to divert us and who thinks we’re gullible and naive like other people who get excited easily.”
Magaqa, who was 35 at the time of his death, was ambushed and assassinated on 13 July 2017 while travelling in a vehicle in uMzimkhulu in the Harry Gwala district. He succumbed to gunshot wounds two months later at Durban’s Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital.
During the attack, Magaqa was travelling with two other councillors — Jabulile Mzizi-Msiya, who now serves as the mayor of uMzimkhulu and councillor Ntsiki Mafa — both of whom survived the shooting.
Magaqa was reportedly targeted for being vocal about a community hall project allegedly mired in large-scale corruption under the ANC-led uMzimkhulu local municipality, where he served as a councillor.
An undercover agent who has since turned state witness revealed in an affidavit that Magaqa was cornered and killed using state-owned weapons, including an AK-47 allegedly bought through a crime intelligence slush fund within SAPS.
The same funds were also allegedly used to purchase a Mercedes-Benz that served as a getaway vehicle after the hit had been carried out.
The agent, who has been placed under state protection, also alleged that one of the hitmen had been registered as a police informer on the crime intelligence payroll.
According to the operative, Sgora Mdunge was a gang leader before he was recruited to become a police informer and later became part of “Project Blow Out”.
The project was allegedly launched to crack down on feared crime syndicates but was instead used as a tool to eliminate rival ANC councillors.
According to the operative, the killing of ANC councillors was an inside job spearheaded by rival factions and aided by high-ranking SAPS officials within crime intelligence.
The agent also alleged that there was a cover-up shortly after Magaqa’s assassination intended to protect senior SAPS officials who were allegedly key players in the assassination plot.
The family of slain ANC Youth League leader Sindiso Magaqa says the arrest of National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams is a distraction from the real masterminds behind the 2017 assassination
