Cele using his credentials to avoid accountability is an embarrassment

This week’s outburst from Police Minister Bheki Cele proves how out of touch he is with the people.

We only have respect for the minister’s struggle credentials and can’t imagine the sacrifices and pain he has been put through during his life.

No one should ever question that, or take that away from him.

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But to use his credentials to avoid accountability should never be allowed, particularly when the very portfolio he must deliver on is an embarrassment.

The high levels of crime cannot be accepted and the public have had enough.

Any victim of crime justifiably has the right to question what has been done to avoid it from happening again.

It should never have happened in the first place.

Calls for the minister’s head to roll have intensified after a community meeting on Tuesday in Gugulethu, Western Cape, was marred by harsh words when Cele told Action Society’s director of community safety Ian Cameron: “Don’t provoke me. I’ve lived this life. Shut up!”

Cele continued to lose his cool: “That is why I was sent to prison. That is why I was sent to Robben Island. That’s why I lived in the cold water, that is why I ate bad food, because I was fighting for human rights.

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“Don’t teach me about human rights. Don’t tell me about the safety of my people. I fought for it, I nearly died for it. I was arrested for it, I was exiled for it.”

Cameron has since laid charges of crimen injuria and common assault against Cele and police officers who removed him from a community meeting this week, but we’d be surprised if anything comes of it.

That’s the ANC way. Party and credentials first. Country a distant second.