We are dealing with Brackenfell incident, says Cele

The incident at Brackenfell High School on Monday, where EFF protesters were allegedly attacked by residents, is not a police matter, Police Minister Bheki Cele has said.

Cele and the police’s top brass were briefing the Portfolio Committee on Police on Wednesday about a turnaround strategy for the underperforming forensic division when EFF MP Henry Shembeni slipped in a question on the Brackenfell incident after the briefing.

Shembeni asked if the police were still the public’s last line of defence and what they were doing across the country when peaceful protesters are attacked by so-called racists.

Committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson allowed the question.

“I would not love to respond to honourable Shembeni in a piecemeal [fashion],” Cele said. “Everybody does every other thing, and at the end of the day, the question is: ‘Where is the police?'”

He added the police should obviously get involved if a crime was perpetrated.

Cele said schools were not military bases where police officers should be deployed.

According to him, “other departments don’t get their ducks in a row and then matters that are not necessarily police matters end up with the police”.

“We are dealing with it,” he said, referring to the Brackenfell incident.

Cele added it could not be resolved by the police alone who should focus on the high level of violent crime in the province.

“These matters are sorted where they are sorted.”

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