Being police minister is not an inheritance, but a job, says Bheki Cele ahead of Cabinet reshuffle

Police Minister Bheki Cele says he is not worried about whether President Cyril Ramaphosa will remove him when he reshuffles his Cabinet “in a matter of days”.

Cele was addressing the media following a visit to Westbury, where shootings left two people dead and 11 injured amid escalating gang violence.

Bheki Cele: ‘I’m not worried’

The police minister said he was not worried about the looming Cabinet reshuffle as his position was not an inheritance, but a job that could be given to someone else.

“If you want to know anything about the reshuffle, you know the man to ask. He’s in Union Buildings as we speak. Why should I be worried? I was put here, I did not apply, I did not send a CV and I did not ask why I’m put and I shall not ask why I’m removed, so why should I be worried?

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“This is not an inheritance, it’s a job. Do the job when you’re given, when it’s taken and given to somebody else, you move on with life,” said Bheki Cele.

Several organisations and political parties have been calling for Cele’s removal as the country battles to keep crime levels down.

‘Westbury deserves better’

Cele said the police management in the province, along with other departments, has put in place measures to deal with the gang-related war in the Westbury.

“We put some ways for the police to deal with the situation, we dealt with the situation, it has come up again. We are here with a problem that started to escalate to this level on Friday. We have 13 people shot, unfortunately two of those passed on. Police have put in measures, which we believe are temporary measures, before we come back with a formula that works.

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“Maybe what we didn’t do properly in 2018, the community invited more departments to be here, who will help us as the police when we come in to stabilise the situation, then they can take the matter forward to sustain stability.”

Bheki Cele said the different government departments had been briefed by the community on their issues.

“We have come with a mini programme that will be unfolding starting from today. We might be back here on Tuesday to see the unfolding of that, where we’ll be able to say more about the programme that we have just crafted inside here.

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“This community deserves better than what is happening at the moment. When that peace that was achieved after 2018 is achieved, we have to find ways of sustaining it going forward.”