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‘When I came out of my mother’s womb, I was not a minister,’ says Cele [VIDEO]
Cele is among the senior ANC members who will not be returning to parliament.
Police Minister Bheki Cele. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Police Minister Bheki Cele is not heartbroken over the African National Congress’ (ANC) decision to not send him back to parliament.
Cele is among the senior members of the ruling party who will not be returning to parliament following the ANC’s dismal performance at the elections.
He joins Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise.
On Thursday, Cele reiterated his comments that being a minister was a job, not an inheritance.
RELATED: Being police minister is not an inheritance, but a job, says Bheki Cele ahead of Cabinet reshuffle
“When I came out of my mother’s womb, I was never a minister, [it was] just me, Bhekokwakhe Cele. Growing up, I never thought I would be a minister one day. What’s wrong with going back as Bhekokwakhe Cele and just be an ordinary citizen and see other people doing work. Once there is a start, there is an end,” Cele told the media on Friday.
“I’ve always said, the people of South Africa have given me the opportunity,” said Cele.
He thanked South African for the opportunity he enjoyed as a minister.
“I’m always grateful. If they’ve seen that you’ve done your job and tried your best and the time to go comes, you have no business kicking the dust and say you can’t go,”added Cele.
Watch his comments below
‘It’s not the end of the road’
“If the time to end has arrived, go home and rest. Do other things, life has many other channels to do. It’s not the end of the road. What you can’t do is to be angry and blame everybody as if when you came in, you were asked if you want to stay for a very long time. Nobody asked why did you put me, so don’t ask why are you taking me out.”
SAPS now better
Cele said although the SAPS had not achieved everything it had hoped to achieve, the incoming minister will find the entity in a much better position.
“I did not start in the police as a minister, I started as a national commissioner. I left. Now we’re dealing with the capabilities that have been taken out of the South African police. We’re putting more police on the ground. We believe that whoever takes over will find it in a better stance.”
PICS: Cele calls for community partnership as he opens new police stations in KZN
This includes several police stations that the SAPS launched in remote areas of KwaZulu-Natal in April.
on Friday, Cele handed over additional vehicles to the country’s detective and forensic service units at the Tswane SAPS Academy.
The additional vehicles will “enhance and improve, amongst other functions, the response time to crime scenes by crime scene experts”, said the SAPS.
“The criminal record centre units will receive 130 vehicles to better capacitate members in linking suspects to crime scenes through evidence collection and analysis.”
‘Cele not good enough’
His exit will, however, be celebrated by some including the Democratic Alliance that has been calling for his removal.
In February, the party submitted a complaint with the Public Protector against Cele for his “disregard of taxpayer funds”.
This after Cele used an SAPS helicopter to attend the ANC’s manifesto launch at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in KwaZulu-Natal.
The SAPS defended him, stating that he did not use the helicopter for personal purposes.
WATCH: Over R170k spent to fly Bheki Cele to AKA murder briefing in KZN (VIDEO)
“The Minister of Police was conducting his constitutional responsibility as a minister of police,” said the SAPS at the time.
“He also advised and guided operations. It is not an isolated incident in which the Minister guides and provides advice on measures to control large crowds during gatherings.”
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