The EFF has weighed in on two mass murders at taverns in Soweto, Gauteng, and Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, over the weekend, saying policing in SA has collapsed.

Four people died after a shooting at a tavern in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday. At least 12 people were shot and eight others were admitted to hospital.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, 15 people were shot dead and at least nine others wounded at a Soweto tavern. All of the dead and injured were over 18 years of age and the tavern was operating within legal operating hours.

In a statement, the EFF said policing under minister Bheki Cele had collapsed and that criminals were “graduating from petty crimes to co-ordinate acts of terror”. 

“The tavern shootings give credence to the EFF’s long-held view that policing in SA under the moronic Bheki Cele has collapsed. Criminals now have confidence that the justice system has no capacity to hold them accountable,” said the party. 

“While Cele is preoccupied with accumulating money, policing and fictionalising the police department, South Africans die in their numbers. His PR stunts of visiting sites of crime after the fact serves no purpose, as criminals are not discouraged by his crocodile tears after people have died.” 

DA MP and police shadow minister Andrew Whitfield said while Cele was telling concerned citizens and community organisations to “shut up”, policing in the country was collapsing.

“For years, the SA Police Service (SAPS) has been understaffed, under-resourced, and undertrained. SAPS also had to bear the burden of minister Cele’s political interference and perpetual infighting between the minister and the former national police commissioner,” Whitfield said in a statement.

He claimed there had been a reduction in the number of detectives and resources available to those investigating crimes since Cele took over as minister.

“Minister Cele has completely lost touch with the reality ordinary South Africans face daily. His disdain for concerned citizens at a meeting in Gugulethu this week mirrors incompetence in addressing the serious failings of the SAPS,” Whitfield added.

ActionSA suggested the tavern tragedies could have been avoided if government prioritised and supported an effective criminal justice system.

“Proliferation of guns has reached an unacceptably high and alarming level in SA, with our Firearms Control Act barely addressing the problem due to (the) president of the country having interest in the survival of the ANC over the safety of the SA people,” ActionSA said.