MPs Dianne Kohler Barnard and Fadiel Adams hit back at Mkhwanazi's serious misconduct accusations

Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament (MP) Dianne Kohler Barnard and National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams have hit back at KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi after he accused them of misconduct.

Mkhwanazi accused Kohler Barnard of inciting attacks against the Crime Intelligence unit and accused Adams of accessing the unit's classified information and handling it “recklessly”.

Mkhwanazi made the comments at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, held at the Bridgette Mabandla Justice College in Pretoria.

The commission of inquiry is chaired by retired Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga.

On Thursday, Mkhwanazi told the commission that Kohler Barnard used classified intelligence to launch probes and fuel attacks against the Crime Intelligence unit.

In an interview with IOL, Kohler Barnard dismissed Mkhwanazi's claims as outrageous, defamatory, and entirely baseless.

She said she was engaging with her party whether she should appear before the commission to refute Mkhwanazi's claims with evidence.

"I don't know whether it's necessary but I'm taking advice whether I should write to the commission to explain the reality of the claims."

Kohler Barnard said Mkhwanazi didn't do his homework as he failed to realise that her comments were based on something that was already public knowledge.

"You can find it anywhere on Google, on February 17, 2025, there was extensive reporting and photographs in all national newspapers about these properties bought by Crime Intelligence. I then wrote to the Inspector General of Intelligence, and I requested him to do an investigation into this because there were claims that people in the top structure had signed on these purchases without going through proper procedure," she said.

She further added that the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) took a full year from the time of the national election to operationalise, hence, it was months before that the committee was formally constituted that I wrote to the Inspector General.

"I served as a member of the JSCI during the last Parliamentary term, and once one is sworn into the committee, no member may share anything spoken of within that committee. As such I may not speak of the outcome of that investigation which I asked the Inspector General to do, given that the report was presented to the committee," she said.

"For it to be suggested by General Mkhwanazi that I was somehow part of a criminal syndicate, is absurd."

Kohler Barnard expressed uncertainty regarding Mkhwanazi's motive for mentioning her, adding that she believes he has damaged his own credibility.

"If he can be wrong on this, how many wrong things has he said?" she asked.

"I have been attacked many times in the last 21 years in Parliament and perhaps this is one of those. But I'm really indignant that he claims that I'm part of a criminal syndicate. I've spent 21 years of my life formulating laws and intending to have them implemented and for him to say a thing like this about me is outrageous," she said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Adams revealed that the documentation Mkhwanazi mentioned was slipped under his office door, adding that he had to read it several times 'because it was unbelievable'.

"I decided that there is a case of criminality, so I took it to the nearest police station. Now if General Mkhwanazi feels like there is toxic crime in this country, then he must step forward and say so. This country is tired of crime. It doesnt' matter who is committing it. I don't care if it's a police general, I don't care if it's the president. This is where Mkhwanazi and I differ.

"So yes, I was in possession of evidence and information. I took it to the police station, and if this man (Mkhwanazi) says I need to be arrested for it, then let him lay the charge. So here I stand today accused by a four-star general, a whole police commissioner of being a possible criminal, if I understand him correctly. But Mkhwanazi must say why he is so desperate to have an issue of almost a billion rands worth fraud and corruption reduced to an HR matter. Is it because he is friends with one of the accused?"

Adams further stated that he had only been an MP for three months when he received the information and as such, he didn't know the avenue in which to take the matter, which made him take it to the police as opposed to the committee. 

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