Good riddance to Bheki Cele, says Action Society

CIVIL rights organisation Action Society has welcomed the “resignation” of Police minister Bheki Cele, saying he had the “bloodiest tenure”.

On Friday, Cele announced that he was stepping down but said he is not disgruntled after his name, among other ANC heavyweights, did not make the party’s list of candidates to serve in the 400-member National Assembly.

A massive Cabinet shake-up is on the cards after Cele, Lindiwe Zulu, Thulas Nxesi, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma nd Naledi Pandor got the chop from the list to serve in the seventh National Assembly.

This comes after the ANC lost 71 seats in a dismal election performance on May 29.

Speaking to the SABC in Tshwane, Cele said he had no hard feelings and was grateful to the ANC and the country for the opportunity to serve.

“When I was in exile, when I was in prison, I never dreamt that I would be a minister one day. It has happened, just be grateful, be gracious, be humble, go home and keep quiet. Do not move around making noise as if somebody told you that you would be a permanent minister. There is no such thing,” Cele said.

Action Society said that from April 2018, shortly after Cele was appointed, until December 2023, South Africa saw 135,243 murders, of which at least 3,918 were children.

That makes his tenure the bloodiest of any Police Minister before him, the organisation said.

“Since the inception of Action Society in 2019, we have called for the resignation of Bheki Cele as Minister of Police. He has repeatedly shown that he was not fit for the job and only stayed in this crucial position because of his connections,” said Juanita du Preez, Action Society spokesperson.

“We are jubilant with the news of his ‘resignation’ and can only hope that his successor will be someone with a working knowledge of how the police should function, a clean background without any corruption links and a will to really tackle the abysmal state of crime in South Africa.”