WITS murder: Ramaphosa must intervene in SAPS crisis and fire Minister Cele

12 March 2021

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Minister Bheki Cele following yet another killing at the hands of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The brutal killing of an innocent young man at the hands of a violent and heavily militarised SAPS is yet another reminder of the deeply entrenched culture of police brutality within the SAPS.

The DA sends our condolences to the family and friends of Mthokozisi Ntumba and we commit to working tirelessly to overhaul the SAPS to ensure that such callous and careless actions do not happen again.

The violence which people suffer from at the hands of the SAPS is out of control and Minister Cele remains in complete denial about the toxic culture of brutality which exists under his leadership.

The Minister yesterday dismissed the incident as though it was a rare occurrence by inferring that this police officer was just one rotten apple. However, the experience of hundreds of thousands of South Africans across the country during lockdown is that SAPS is rotten to the core.

Over and above the obvious toxic culture of brutality within the SAPS under his watch, Minister Cele has failed to achieve any improvements with the SAPS during his tenure. This week, the Minister admitted that he doesn’t know who the Head of Crime Intelligence is and it was also revealed in a Police Portfolio Committee meeting that the Minister interfered in procurement matters with respect to contracts in the SAPS Forensics Division.

The Minister’s ongoing tug-of-war with the National Police Commissioner is causing complete chaos within the ranks of the SAPS and uncertainty among officers. This leadership crisis at SAPS is the direct responsibility of President Ramaphosa from which he cannot run away. It is the President who appointed Minister Cele and the National Police Commissioner, it is therefore only the President who can fix this crisis.

Minister Cele’s cavalier cowboy attitude to policing is causing irreparable harm to an already tattered social contract between citizens and the state and he must be stopped.

It is time for serious consequences for those in leadership or the killings at the hands of the SAPS will continue. The President has an opportunity to send the strongest message yet that what happened to Mthokozisi Ntumba will not be tolerated by firing Minister Cele.

Issued by Andrew Whitfield, DA Shadow Minister of Police, 12 March 2021