Cele, let top cop do the job

He is undoubtedly the most visible minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, “hands-on” and with his trademark of donning stylish hats, you cannot miss the sight of Police Minister Bheki Cele. If the performance appraisal of ministers was solely based on visibility and soundbites alone, Cele would certainly come up tops.

But since assuming the role of the political head of the police department – charged with a responsibility to show leadership, overseeing policy and its implementation by South Africa’s most senior police officer, General Sehlahle Fannie Masemola and the rest of the SA Police Service (Saps) – you’d sometimes be forgiven for thinking Cele is the national commissioner.

From high-profile murders of former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa to the callous killing of Hillary Gardee, Cele has been among the first to be in crime scenes – one to pronounce on “progress” in investigations and on suspects arrested, without many breakthroughs achieved.

During the tenure of the dismissed former commissioner Khehla Sitole, Cele adopted a similar posture – the first to speak on issues and crime-related investigations, leaving the Saps boss without much to say.

In a crime-ravaged country like ours, with the murder rate having increased by 8.9% in the last three months of 2021 compared to the same period in the previous year, kidnapping showing the biggest increase of 35.7% compared to all other crime categories and the killing of women soaring, we are far from winning the war on criminals.

The long list of unresolved cases and blunders in crime investigations, which have often seen police arresting suspects that are later found not guilty in court, is an indictment of the poor state of the Saps, which has for too long been marked by much acrimony between Cele and the police top brass.

For years, bedevilled by leadership instability and creeping corruption within its ranks, the poorly equipped and trained Saps is far from being benchmarked against the best police departments in the world.

While we still have a few good men and women in blue – we are still lagging behind the rest of the globe when it comes to quality of investigations, training and equipment.

With Singapore, Finland and Denmark having earned the respect for being the best performing police forces globally, SA is the 39thworst performer out of 127 countries, according to the World Internal Security and Police Index. This should give Cele sleepless nights. With SA being one of the most dangerous countries, we daily observe how some of us who have the means have enlisted the services of private security companies for safety – something not reflecting well on Saps’ track record.

Experts have pointed out that lack of leadership is behind the many challenges experienced by Saps, with SA Institute for Security Studies independent researcher David Bruce conceding that the policing crisis deeply affects society.

It has always been pointed out that failure by government to appoint suitably qualified people to lead Saps – independent of political interference – was among issues that led to the force’s failure to function optimally and efficiently.

If the performance appraisal of ministers was solely based on visibility and soundbites alone, Cele would certainly come up tops.