‘THEY WANT ME DEAD’

FADIEL Adams dropped a moerse bombshell yesterday, claiming that the Democratic Alliance wants him taken out.

National Coloured Congress (NCC) leader Fadiel Adams went live on Facebook on Monday, alleging that he was warned there’s a hit out on his life and the source of the threat allegedly sits in the DA’s top ranks.

Adams says the drama started on 30 May, when he got a disturbing phone call from Mayoral Committee Member of Human Settlements Carl Pophaim.

Adams said: “The phone call claimed that JP Smith had deployed a new councillor in the DA for Manenberg Deidree de Vos and she had been sent to approach a man called Faiek Moses.

“Moses was once upon a time a notorious member of the Hard Livings gang in Manenberg. As far as I know he has turned his life around and is a working man. He has small subcontracting opportunities in Manenberg.

“De Vos was told to tell him that Smith was going to terminate his membership as a DA member and his contract opportunities, this is the message I received from Carl Pophaim.”

He added that when he told Pophaim that he wasn’t even aware that Moses worked for the DA, Pophaim promised to deal with it, maar Adams says he decided to handle it his own way.

He went on to claim that Pophaim sent him a voice message saying: “They want Faiek to take Faidel out and expect him to act like a gangster because Faidel is threatening his income.”

Adams says the message disappeared but he kept the receipts, including a recorded conversation with De Vos.

But JP Smith is hitting back, hard.

In a statement released on 29 June, the Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security slammed the claims, calling them “misinformation” and part of a “ridiculous attempt to tarnish” his name.

Smith said: “It has come to my attention that more misinformation is once again being spread by the NCC and its relevance-starved leader, Fadiel Adams, in an utterly ridiculous attempt to tarnish my reputation, that of the Democratic Alliance, and the City of Cape Town.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve witnessed a pattern of narrative building and the mass dissemination of misinformation by the NCC. It is no coincidence that their latest attempt comes just as the City steps up its efforts to support SAPS in tackling gang violence.”

He says the City recently sent 200 personnel to assist SAPS in gang activities, something he says clearly “irks the NCC and their funders”.

Smith confirmed that his lawyers are involved and said he’ll be taking legal action against the ongoing smear campaign.