Police minister Bheki Cele said the DA should have “dealt with” John Steenhuisen, saying the party's leader “abused a junior woman in his office”.
Cele made the remark during the Q&A session on Friday at the release of crime statistics for the first quarter of the 2022-23 financial year.
Cele was responding to the launch of the DA’s #CeleMustGo billboard in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on Thursday.
The billboard reads: “Minister Cele nobody is lucky to be raped! #CeleMustGo.”
DA spokesperson on police Andrew Whitfield spoke at the launch, which was a response to Cele's comment that a victim of the Krugersdorp gang rapes “was lucky — if it is lucky” to be raped by one man.
In conversation with eNCA anchors Thulasizwe Simelane and Sally Burdett on July 29, Cele gave details about the horrific attack, including that one woman was raped by 10 men.
“One woman was raped by 10 different men. The other one by eight, the other one by six, the other one by four, [the other by] three. The one 19-year-old was lucky — if it is lucky — [to be] raped by one man.”
In spite of qualifying the sentence with “if it is lucky”, the minister has received backlash for the comment.
In response to the billboard, Cele said if the DA was serious about gender-based violence, “they should have dealt with their leader because he abused a woman who worked in his office ... a wife of somebody. Because [she] was working in his office and was a junior member there ... pressure was put [on her] to become his wife.”
He said the DA, which “claims” to be worried about the abuse of women, should start looking at home and not use such a serious issue for politicking.
Cele was speaking about an affair Steenhuisen had with Terry Beaumont who was a media liaison officer in KwaZulu-Natal at the time.
Steenhuisen was married to Julie Steenhuisen from 2000 to 2010 and at the time of the affair, Beaumont was married to the then DA provincial director Michael Beaumont.
Steenhuisen and Terry married in 2014.
In response DA national spokesperson Solly Malatsi said: “We will not entertain the deranged ramblings of a minister who thinks SA women are lucky to be raped once.”
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Cele calls Steenhuisen a 'woman abuser who pressured wife to marry'
Image: Screengrab via Youtube/SA Police Service
Police minister Bheki Cele said the DA should have “dealt with” John Steenhuisen, saying the party's leader “abused a junior woman in his office”.
Cele made the remark during the Q&A session on Friday at the release of crime statistics for the first quarter of the 2022-23 financial year.
Cele was responding to the launch of the DA’s #CeleMustGo billboard in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on Thursday.
The billboard reads: “Minister Cele nobody is lucky to be raped! #CeleMustGo.”
DA spokesperson on police Andrew Whitfield spoke at the launch, which was a response to Cele's comment that a victim of the Krugersdorp gang rapes “was lucky — if it is lucky” to be raped by one man.
In conversation with eNCA anchors Thulasizwe Simelane and Sally Burdett on July 29, Cele gave details about the horrific attack, including that one woman was raped by 10 men.
“One woman was raped by 10 different men. The other one by eight, the other one by six, the other one by four, [the other by] three. The one 19-year-old was lucky — if it is lucky — [to be] raped by one man.”
In spite of qualifying the sentence with “if it is lucky”, the minister has received backlash for the comment.
In response to the billboard, Cele said if the DA was serious about gender-based violence, “they should have dealt with their leader because he abused a woman who worked in his office ... a wife of somebody. Because [she] was working in his office and was a junior member there ... pressure was put [on her] to become his wife.”
He said the DA, which “claims” to be worried about the abuse of women, should start looking at home and not use such a serious issue for politicking.
Cele was speaking about an affair Steenhuisen had with Terry Beaumont who was a media liaison officer in KwaZulu-Natal at the time.
Steenhuisen was married to Julie Steenhuisen from 2000 to 2010 and at the time of the affair, Beaumont was married to the then DA provincial director Michael Beaumont.
Steenhuisen and Terry married in 2014.
In response DA national spokesperson Solly Malatsi said: “We will not entertain the deranged ramblings of a minister who thinks SA women are lucky to be raped once.”
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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