Africa-Press – South-Africa. Any organisation would have fired Police Minister Bheki Cele long ago, but not the ANC government, said DA leader John Steenhuisen as the party marched to Cele’s office in Pretoria on Tuesday.
“It is only in this ANC government that a man, who has presided over one of the worst violent crime waves outside of a war zone, would still be rewarded with the perks, pay and power of a Cabinet position. He is a danger to society and he must be fired. Bheki Cele must go,” Steenhuisen said in a statement.
According to Steenhuisen, more than 33 000 people signed a petition “to get rid of Bheki Cele”.
“What unites all these people – and what sets them apart from the members of the ANC government – is that they have to face the murderers, rapists and robbers on their own. They don’t have the luxury of VIP Protection Units or state-sponsored home security upgrades.
“To add insult to injury, not only is Cele unable to protect people, but he also doesn’t want to let DA governments step in to protect them instead,” said Steenhuisen.
The DA-led governments of the Western Cape and City of Cape Town have been lobbying for police functions to be devolved, but Cele has fiercely opposed these attempts, often disparaging the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement agencies.
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Steenhuisen said the DA would continue to fight for greater policing powers in competent metros, which the mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, was doing.
“On 18 August, he wrote to both Minister Cele and Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola, requesting this constitutionally-permitted devolution of policing powers to the City of Cape Town,” said Steenhuisen.
Hill-Lewis also participated in the march, and he called for more policing powers for competent provincial and local governments.
Steenhuisen said it was a “shameful indictment” on President Cyril Ramaphosa that Cele had not been held accountable.
Steenhuisen said:
“Unity in the ANC trumps everything – even the lives of thousands of South African citizens – which is why Ramaphosa didn’t hesitate for a second to offer Cele his full backing during last week’s Questions to the President in the National Assembly.”
South Africa’s latest crime figures, Cele’s apparent inaction to prevent last year’s violent unrest, and the DNA backlog were given as reasons why Cele should go.
“South Africa is – and has been for many years – in the midst of a crime crisis. However much President Ramaphosa and his government would like to downplay and normalise this situation, we can never allow this to happen. We must do everything in our power to tilt the scales back in favour of the people of South Africa, and to rid our country of this terrible scourge. That starts with firing this useless police minister,” said Steenhuisen.
The march was also attended by Action Society, whose director, Ian Cameron, was told to “shut up” by Cele when he raised policing issues during a community meeting in Gugulethu, Cape Town, in July.
Last week, when Ramaphosa was in the National Assembly to answer questions, he expressed support for his beleaguered police minister.
According to Ramaphosa, Cele was at “the forefront” in the fight against gender-based violence, and his recent remark that a woman was lucky to be raped only once had been “lost in translation”.
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