Police minister Bheki Cele lost his composure in Gugulethu on Tuesday when Ian Cameron, a director of community safety at Action Society, questioned the police’s failure in combating crime.

Cele was attending a community policing engagement in Gugulethu when Cameron was given an opportunity to speak.

Cameron said Action Society — a civil society organisation — was mandated by the survivors and families of victims of gender-based violence to speak on their behalf during the meeting.

The organisation also has a #Celemustgo campaign in which it accuses Cele of being  behind the continued mismanagement of the police. Cameron said community members had mandated Action Society to help with gender-based violence cases where the police failed to investigate and ensure convictions. 

He told Cele that he was failing in his mandate to ensure the community was safe.

Cameron further told Cele that he does not see him patrolling at night like the people at the meeting wearing their yellow jackets — not supplied by the police but by the municipality — and without a six-car motorcade and bodyguards.

Cameron invited Cele to do patrols with the women from the area.

He pointed out that the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town were not invited, even though they posted people on the streets.

Cele did not take kindly to these statement and told Cameron that he did not join human rights battles yesterday.

“That is why I was sent to prison. That is why I was sent to  Robben Island. That’s why I lived in the cold water, that is why I ate bad food because I was fighting for human rights,” Cele said.

He also told Cameron not tell me him about the safety of “my people”.

When  Cameron was trying to respond, Cele told him to “shut up” a number of times and told him to “listen” or “get out” before Cameron was pushed out by one of the policemen at the venue.

Another video shows Cameron being escorted towards his car by a number of police officers.

After his ejection, Cameron said he was tired of hearing political excuses and stories while ordinary people are being killed in the country. He said his jacket was torn by a public order policing officer.

TimesLIVE