‘Degrading’: Steenhuisen slammed for ‘drunkard’ analogy, dragging Pep Stores in Lesufi rant

DA leader John Steenhuisen has received backlash after using a “drunkard” analogy while criticising the appointment of 4,000 crime wardens, an initiative introduced by Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi.

Last month, justice and correctional services minister Ronald Lamola recommended the crime wardens be given the legal status of provincial traffic officers. This received mixed reactions after the Sunday Times highlighted that wardens were involved in 22 crashes with their new BMWs within months.

Speaking at a party campaign event in Soshanguve, Pretoria at the weekend, Steenhuisen made critical remarks about the wardens and ruffled feathers.

“What did Panyaza Lesufi do? He took your tax money to buy ill-fitting Pep Stores uniforms for untrained cadres and pretended they were ‘crime wardens’. What kind of person pulls a drunkard out of a shebeen, gives him a uniform and a weapon, and then unleashes them onto a community?” he said.

The quote was posted on the party’s social media platforms and on X and gained almost
3-million views by Tuesday.

Many people were unhappy with his analogy and described it as degrading to the crime wardens. Some conceded the appointment of the crime wardens was “ill-informed” but said Steenhuisen was being classist and discriminated against poor people who buy clothes at Pep outlets.

Here are some reactions from social media: 

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