10 year-old children out drinking is parents’ fault, not police’s says Cele

Police Minister Bheki Cele told the community of Langa in the Western Cape the police could not be chasing after 10-year-old children.

“What are police going to do with children who are 10 years old? We can’t hand over the responsibility of being parents; we cannot say that police must take care of 10-year-olds,” he said.

Cele spoke of an experience when he visited the area after a street party, and a mother asked for police assistance with her 10-year-old.

“As I was listening, I found myself surrounded by mothers, who said we call your police to help us with our kids here,” he explained.

“Where do they get alcohol, at 10 years old? I said to the mothers that police need to be put in order, but parents need to be put in order too,” he said.

Cele was hosting an Imbizo with the community of Langa on Saturday.

He said there may be some police officers who had not performed their duties, but it also fell on the community to take action in their area.

“This is our community. We are here to stay, so we need to fix this community. While there are some bad members of police, there are also some bad members of the community,” he said.

Cele said the bad communities also include parents who allow their 10-year-olds to go drinking all night.

“You mothers are sleeping, but your 10-year-old is drinking and you tell yourself you are a parent. You call police. At 10 years, the mother is asking what are the police doing? No, if it was me as a dad, and I’m married to you [and] I am being defeated by a 10-year-old, you must divorce me,” he said.

According to Cele, there are currently over 4 700 men serving life sentences for crimes against women, a number which shows there are good police officers, who are achieving convictions.

“There are 4 728 males in SA doing life for abuse [toward] women; to do life, someone must have done a good job and that is a good police officer.

“There are good police officers, and there are bad. Just like there are good community members and bad,” he said.

Cele also said action would be taken against police officers found to be negligent in their duties.

Cele added that he had taken note of complaints raised by neighbourhood watch patrollers, alleging there is favouritism in how resources are allocated to different areas.

He vowed to raise this with the City of Cape Town and Western Cape provincial representatives.

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