“Action Society heard the outcry from communities across the country, and with the support of more than 100 000 people now officially requests the minister of police, Bheki Cele, to be removed from his position,” said Ian Cameron, director of community safety at Action Society. “South Africans are sick and tired of crime and the absolute inability of the minister to do his work.”
Action Society’s Cameron lodged a formal request for the termination of Cele with the Speaker of Parliament, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. In this regard, 109 873 persons supported and signed Action Society’s online petition, which still garners support.
“The purpose of the formal request is twofold,” said Cameron. “Firstly, we seek to bring to the Speaker’s attention the conduct of the incumbent minister of police, which forms the basis of the complaint. Secondly, to request that she, as Speaker of the National Assembly, investigate this matter, report thereon to Parliament, and impose an appropriate sanction on Minister Cele or alternatively refer the matter to the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests for further deliberation.”
The incident in Gugulethu where Minister Cele shouted at Cameron, and the police forcibly removed him was the catalyst to an ongoing campaign of Action Society to rid our crime-ridden country of an incompetent minister of police.
Action Society is a registered non-profit company and civil rights organisation which acts in the interest of its supporters and the interest of the public through active advocacy for policy change and effective implementation of policy. We are driven by a purpose to provide a voice to the voiceless and recourse to those who have been let down by the institutions that should protect them, such as the South African Police Service.
“A minister who wants to nitpick about the different roles of CPFs and community watch groups and resorts to shouting when the community he should be serving points out his failures should not be in office,” said Cameron. “A police minister in charge where the murder rate jumps by 22% from one year to the next is failing. A police minister showing statistics of 10 818 rape cases in three months is not doing his job effectively. Police officers who have to buy their own equipment and deal with up to 300 dockets per person indicates the minister of police is not fit for his position.”
The official letter and petition are available on Action Society’s website.
