Bheki Cele Calls on Parents to Stop Hiding Their Children’s Criminal Behaviour

• Police Minister Bheki Cele has pleaded with families to stop protecting their children involved in gangs from the police
• Cele said it is difficult for the SAPS to probe gang-related criminality when the community is covering for the offenders
• The minister further called on all spheres of government and community to work together to combat crime

Zingisa Chirwa is an experienced Briefly News journalist based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who has covered crime stories and current affairs on the radio for over 15 years.

Police Minister Bheki Cele urged parents to refrain from covering for their children involved in criminal activity.

Police Minister said communities must expose criminals

Cele spoke at a Police Imbizo on gang violence in Hanover Park, Cape Town, on 14 April 2024.

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According to EWN, the minister said it’s difficult for the police to probe gang-related crimes when community members protect the culprits.

The community reportedly told the minister that police vans were unavailable to keep the peace in the area.

Cele said additional resources were dispersed to the Western Cape to work in gang-infested areas. According to News 24, the minister asked that all spheres of government and communities work together to combat crime:

"Politics [must be] put away, and government on all levels must work together.”

South Africans not convinced by Cele

Many netizens believed Cele isn’t doing enough to curb crime and called for a new police minister.

@SbiOnage

“My plea is simple, whoever wins next month's elections, can they rope in the KZN Commissioner & appoint him as the next Police Minister?”

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@MLANDO60870174

“Bheki Cele, he is wasting the budget of the police bigtime.”

@KgMol

“Bheki Cele has no interest at all about the safety of South Africans. He is scared of criminals.”

@netekanton

“The minister of @SAPoliceService, Bheki Cele, is a coward and a thug himself. Why did he appoint people in high positions to prevent them from investigating him and his comrades? @CyrilRamaphosa is protecting this thug!”

@Black_Indaba

“Bheki Cele should just do a Tito Mboweni.”

KZN police stationed controlled by gang boss

Briefly News reported that an alleged gang leader in Verulam reportedly had members of the SAPS on his payroll.

The Hawks launched a probe into the leader as officers at the Verulam station were apparently unwilling to investigate him. The investigators also discovered that the police may have assisted him in registering security companies to secure firearms.

Source: Briefly News