Hearing record
Day 139
Day 139, 14 July 2026. With IDAC head Advocate Andrea Johnson's testimony still postponed on medical grounds, senior Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) investigator Brian Padayachee took the stand at the Madlanga Commission to defend the directorate against claims that it is being weaponised in police infighting. Padayachee denied allegations - raised through Durban businessman Thoshan Panday - that he orchestrated unlawful telephone interceptions and covert surveillance for more than a decade by misusing interception orders, calling them 'baseless and devoid of merit' and insisting 'the IDAC has sufficient evidence to sustain the charges in the criminal case against Khumalo and other officials at Crime Intelligence'. He rejected the existence of a so-called 'Khan-IDAC cabal' (also put to him as an 'Indian cabal'), saying he had no knowledge of any such group, while confirming he knew suspended Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan from their earlier work together in Crime Intelligence. Padayachee also pushed back on KwaZulu-Natal commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi's claims, testifying that Mkhwanazi knew of and had no issue with the arrest of Crime Intelligence head Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, whose fraud and corruption case he said arose from a complaint laid by National Coloured Congress MP Fadiel Adams. Under questioning he conceded he did not have Adams's original signed affidavit when the case began, relying on an oral briefing and receiving the sworn statement later, which chairperson Mbuyiseli Madlanga probed. Businessman Suleiman Carrim was separately reported to have been ruled medically unfit to testify again, days before a 15 July return date. All allegations are untested; those named are presumed innocent.
