Opposition parties have called for Police Minister Bheki Cele to be fired after he released the latest crime statistics for January to March this year.
The statistics revealed an increase in serious crimes with 67 murders a day, 153 rapes, 364 violent robberies, 60 car jackings, and 36 kidnappings. As the government speaks about fighting gender-based violence, 898 women and 306 children were killed. The murder of women increased by 17.5%, and of children by 37.2%.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde accused Bheki Cele of lacking commitment and urgency in dealing with crime in the province. Winde was responding to questions from opposition parties on Thursday in the Western Cape legislature. His response came after a man was beaten and burned to death in a mob justice incident earlier this week.
“The big problem is we do not have a sufficient amount of police members deployed to deal with crime in this region. Our citizens are bleeding, dying and living in fear every single day,” he said.
DA spokesperson for policing Andrew Whitfield called for Bheki Cele to be axed. “Time after time, President Ramaphosa has promised to reduce violent crimes, but these crime stats betray that promise, with almost every single category of crime increasing significantly year-on-year since 2018. It is now abundantly clear that Minister Cele is not fit to serve in his position. This is a slap in the face to the law-abiding citizens of South Africa, especially to the 6 083 people who unnecessarily lost their lives due to his utter incompetence,” he said.
Action SA president Herman Mashaba said the failure of the ANC government to maintain the rule of law had now reached a new low. “It is clear that our country has been on auto-pilot since Cyril Ramaphosa became president and retained failed ministers like Bheki Cele.”
EFF MP Henry Shembeni said he was disturbed by the huge increase in the murder of women and children. “But it seems as if we are failing, and the criminals are winning. We are not winning the fight anymore. The criminals are around us,” he said.
Source: News24, IOL, image from IOL