Appoint Bheki Cele as police minister to stop crime scourge

BHEKI Cele should be redeployed to the police force, finish en klaar.

South Africa has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons lately: a contracting economy, glaring inequalities, wildcat strikes, xenophobia and some of the highest crime statistics in the world. My preoccupation, however, is with crime. South Africans do not feel safe in their homes or on their streets, and our police have one of the highest-risk occupations in the country.

If our government is truly serious about curbing crime and looking into the issue of police killings, the most honourable thing to do is to reassign Bheki Cele to the police portfolio and appoint him police minister. Cele understands the language of criminals. He has been praised and vilified in equal measure for his combative approach to fighting crime, but as the saying goes, numbers don’t lie.

When Cele was police commissioner, the masses and the police felt a sense of protection and command. He revived and restored the dignity of our police. He understood the language of the offenders; he understood their thinking regarding premeditated crimes and was clear on how crime should be tackled.

Cele managed to respond to the plight of our people. He at one point created a team of people whose job was solely to track criminals.

It is clear that if solutions and contingency plans are not put forward urgently, if the government is not assertive enough to whip people, these culprits will ravage this country and drag it into the mud.

People will resort to mob justice because they feel it is their only option.

I have no doubt the time has arrived for our government to listen to our clarion call and reinstate Bheki Cele. SAMKELO MATSHETSHA Durban