LISTEN | Frustrated by GBV & crime, marchers call for sacking of police minister Bheki Cele

“Have you ever been raped? Do you know someone in your family who was raped?”

These questions were posed by protesters who marched to police minister Bheki Cele’s office in Pretoria on Tuesday to call for his ousting.

The march was organised by the DA and supported by Action Society’s Ian Cameron.

Nikelwa Combo, from Johannesburg East, said: “Every day women and children are being killed. We are tired.”

Mona Denyssen, 71, from Johannesburg, told TimesLIVE she joined the protest because the abuse of women needs urgent intervention.

“I would like abuse of women and how we are suffering to be noticed. I am worried about my granddaughter, who is 13, and women in their 60s and 70s. They rape the grannies, they rob the grannies. We don’t know where to walk, even to the shops. I would like it if we could park our cars safely, visit the beach, go camping, but we are scared,” she said.

Denyssen said Cele is failing to protect citizens.

“Definitely, he has failed us. He has failed us tremendously. We no longer enjoy freedom in SA, and that is why he should go.”

Thabiso Mahlabe, from Eden Park, who spoke about being mugged at 8am, said Cele must make way for someone younger.

“Crime keeps increasing every year and Cele is not doing much about it.”

Isaac Ntshabele, 46, from Ga-Rankuwa said: “We are tired of the minister because he doesn’t do the things he has promised.”

DA leader John Steenhuisen said crime statistics paint a grim picture. Every day, he said, 67 people are murdered, 153 people are raped and 364 violent robberies occur.

In the last quarter, 855 women and 243 children were murdered, and there were 11,734 cases of assault with grievous bodily harm reported against women and 1,670 against children.

“These numbers, coupled with an unacceptably low conviction rate, are an indication of a government that has lost the war on crime, and for this defeat the buck must stop with the police minister,” said Steenhuisen

He criticised Cele for the ineffectiveness of the police during the July 2021 riots and the DNA backlog, saying there are more than 150,000 DNA samples awaiting processing.

Steenhuisen also cited the “destruction” of the police service reserve programme, which he said has seen reserve numbers drop by 90%, from more than 50,000 in 2012 to less than 4,500 today.

“The biggest drops in these numbers happened during his last year as police national commissioner and his first year as police minister. His clear targeting and destruction of this vital crime-fighting tool has put millions at risk and has no doubt cost many lives.”

Cameron said: “Most South Africans are sick and tired of the violence. The police are failing in their constitutional mandate.”

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.