‘Incompetent’ Cele ‘must be fired’ for Diepsloot tragedy, say opposition parties

With crime spiralling out of control in Diepsloot, where a marauding mob on Tuesday stoned and burnt to death Zimbabwean Elvis Mbhodazwe Nyathi, opposition parties have piled pressure on Police Minister Bheki Cele, with the EFF blaming him for being “incompetent and self-obsessed”.

A leading independent security analyst, Dr Johan Burger, said Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, reflected a microcosm of a much deeper policing crisis in South Africa: the collapse of the Crime Intelligence (CI) division, with an exodus of capable intelligence officials during the reign of the disgraced Richard Mdluli.

In its strongest condemnation of Cele, the EFF said crime in the country was “spiralling out of control, because of an incompetent and self-obsessed minister of police, who has factionalised the police force and has allowed for criminality to brew in the security cluster”.

“The refusal of the ANC to take responsibility for its failures and its abdication of the duty to create jobs and fight crime, has led to the brutal killing of an African brother,” the party said.

“The EFF has long warned if the various groups, which are mushrooming on the anti-immigration ticket, are not stopped, it will end in a loss of life. In tragic, disturbing and unsettling news, Nyathi was a victim of the indiscriminate door-to-door raids by a vigilante group that has gained prominence on the basis of targeting African foreign nationals.”

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Congress of the People spokesperson Dennis Bloem called for the firing of Cele, as the party regarded him as “a danger to the safety and security of the country”.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa must stop Cele from relegating the police commissioner to his bodyguard or personal assistant,” Bloem said.

“In Diepsloot, residents are protesting against a high crime rate, a shortage of police officers, vehicles and undocumented foreigners. Cele told the community he will deploy more police to Diepsloot, including the Tactical Response Team, as well as the Public Order Police, immediately.

“That is not the responsibility of the minister, but the commissioner of police.”

Describing the CI as being “in a mess”, Burger said corruption and loss of expertise at the division, “have weakened that institution to a level where it became so unproductive on intelligence”.

“It’s a double-sided problem in crime-ridden areas like Diepsloot. If there is a failure to investigate those complaints, arrest perpetrators and bring suspects to court, communities lose confidence in the ability of the police.

“That is when they take the law into their own hands, leading to mob justice.”

Reliving her husband’s death, a distraught Nomsa Tshuma described how a vigilante group stormed their dwelling, demanding to see passports.

“My husband ran away. When the group returned, they had already beaten him up and he was in blood,” said Tshuma.