Cape Town – Police Minister Bheki Cele has urged parties to refrain from politicising crime in the country.
He said there was no use to use crime as a political football as government wanted to fight crime in all communities.
Cele, who is holding imbizo in Mitchells Plain on crime, said they did not want parties to politicise crime.
The DA and the ANC government have been at loggerheads about crime strategies, with the official opposition also calling for the devolution of policing powers.
They want provinces to have control of the police, and recently also slammed government for trying to centralise command and control of the metro police.
But on Saturday Cele said there was no need to politicise crime, and that it was the intention of government for all parties to work together in the fight against crime.
“It’s not what we like. We are obligated to work together by the Constitution and by the laws, but by the people of South Africa who want to be treated the same and make sure we work together with them. This is what I want to say here. I want to make a call, drop this thing of politicising crime, drop it, drop it. Let’s work together on this matter. Let’s all do what we are supposed to do,” said Cele.
He said one crime that had gone up in the Western Cape was car hijacking because criminals targeted areas like Khayelitsha where there were potholes.
But this elicited anger from some of the members of the audience.
Cele stuck to his guns, saying they need to fix infrastructure in poor communities.
POLITICAL BUREAU