DA marches to Bheki Cele's office demanding he resign

'If he doesn’t go Ramaphosa must remove him as minister'

DA leader John Steenhuisen marches alongside DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga and other protestors in Pretoria calling for the resigantion of police minister Bheki Cele.
DA leader John Steenhuisen marches alongside DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga and other protestors in Pretoria calling for the resigantion of police minister Bheki Cele.
Image: Keletso Mkhwanazi

"Enough is enough!" and “Your time is up Cele."

These are the words on some of the placards as the DA marches to minister of police Bheki Cele's office to demand that he goes.

The #CeleMustGo protest started at the corner of Princes Park Avenue and Francis Baard Street in the Pretoria CBD.

The march was led by party leader John Steenhuisen alongside the DA's shadow minister of police Andrew Whitfield and director of community safety at Action Society Ian Cameron.

DA Gauteng shadow MEC for community safety Crezane Bosch said they wanted Cele to resign.

“He needs to resign and if he doesn’t resign the President [Cyril Ramaphosa] must remove him as a minister,” said Bosch.

She said Gauteng had 143 police stations to look after 15-million people.

“Only five of the police stations are in a good state, all of them are falling apart. They are under-resourced and they are also flooded with sewage,” she said, adding that there is all sorts of structural damages at the stations and they cannot cure crime.

“There is 1,000 vehicles stuck in garages in the Gauteng province and the police can’t do crime prevention the way they should,” said Bosch.

Albert Seepe, 59, from Hammanskraal, said the SAPS is failing them under the leadership of Cele.

He said Cele is the reason the police are not doing their job.

“He fired the national [commissioner] Khehla Sithole and prevented him from working."

Jenny Neethling, 76, and her husband Chris, 78, from Pretoria, said the police are not able to do what they are supposed to do.

“We have a minister who seems not to care about what people are asking for, [and] as the DA we want to get rid of him,” Chris said.

newsdesk@sowetan.co.za

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