Cele not the best, but definitely not the worst either’

Experts see no logical replacement for Bheki Cele, as the pressure to remove the minister of police from his post continues.

David Bruce, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) spokesperson on crime and police conduct, said Cele had definite strengths.

“One of the reasons I see Cele in a reasonably positive light is that he is more engaged than many ministers have been. He often addresses crises in a very hands-on way and feels comfortable engaging with community members,” he said.

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Bruce said the minister of police should focus on shaping policy related to policing in a purposeful way to address the overall crime problem.

“When Jackie Selebi was national commissioner, [former president] Thabo Mbeki seemed to take the approach that his minister didn’t need to be engaged with the job. My basic sense of Charles Nqakula was that he didn’t focus on that role at all,” Bruce said.

The other side of the coin of an absentee police minister was a minister who tried to run the police, which is actually the job of the national police commissioner, he said.

“It is one of the major criticisms made of Bheki Cele. But we haven’t had a single minister, at least not since 2000, when Steve Tshwete was appointed, who has been able to engage at the policy level,” he said.

Bruce said, as a result, police in South Africa have largely stagnated in the last 20 years. Security expert Dr Johan Burger said he saw no logical replacement for Cele among the widely known leadership figures within the ANC.

 “Although police background is not a requirement for the position as a minister, it is valuable,” Burger said. “And Cele gained valuable experience as a provincial minister at the time in KwaZulu-Natal and later as national commissioner,” Burger said.

“In addition, in 1993, he completed a five-week course in England at the Civil Service College in the formulation of policing policy. The course also included practical work with the Metropolitan Police in London.

“It was an intensive course and Cele did excellently. I was on the course with him and can testify to that,” he said. Criminologist Professor Jaco Barkhuizen said SA needed a minister who understood policing from an academic, as well as practical, side and who was proactive, instead of reactive.

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