The former police commissioner is back — this time as minister — and he wants the Cape Flats to know “Bheki Cele and his boys were here”.
Dressed in black and wearing one of his signature Panama hats‚ Cele arrived at Mitchells Plain Indoor Sports and Recreation Centre on Tuesday to introduce the community to the 269 police officers of Operation Thunder.
The “stabilisation and normalisation” operation will run for 90 days in the gang-infested Cape Flats and surrounding areas.
It will include suburbs such as Nyanga‚ Manenberg‚ Kraaifontein and Hanover Park‚ which make daily headlines for murder‚ rape and drug-related crime.
The police minister listened to members of the community bemoaning the high levels of crime. Some told him they had no confidence in the police; other saluted the high-ranking officers flanking him.
Cele did not fail to evoke emotion among the crowd and even police officers struggled to hide their amusement at his off-the-cuff statements about criminals.
Bheki Cele thunders back onto the Cape Flats with fire and brimstone
The former police commissioner is back — this time as minister — and he wants the Cape Flats to know “Bheki Cele and his boys were here”.
Dressed in black and wearing one of his signature Panama hats‚ Cele arrived at Mitchells Plain Indoor Sports and Recreation Centre on Tuesday to introduce the community to the 269 police officers of Operation Thunder.
The “stabilisation and normalisation” operation will run for 90 days in the gang-infested Cape Flats and surrounding areas.
It will include suburbs such as Nyanga‚ Manenberg‚ Kraaifontein and Hanover Park‚ which make daily headlines for murder‚ rape and drug-related crime.
The police minister listened to members of the community bemoaning the high levels of crime. Some told him they had no confidence in the police; other saluted the high-ranking officers flanking him.
Cele did not fail to evoke emotion among the crowd and even police officers struggled to hide their amusement at his off-the-cuff statements about criminals.
To the community he said:
To the 269 officers he said: