The grim picture presented by the recently released crime stats would have spelled the end of Police Minister Bheki Cele’s career if competency was measured based on his track record, and not political favours.
In fact, his entire Cabinet colleagues, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, would find it difficult to stay in the job if one looks at the state of affairs in our country.
But for purposes of this editorial, allow us to limit ourselves to the crime statistics released on Friday and what it says about Cele’s leadership, or lack thereof.
Out of the 6 228 people killed between April and June, 1 188 were reported to be women and children.
The overall decline in the number of murders by 196 and the drop in rape cases by 264 from 9 516 is not something to celebrate.
For example, in Free State where there was a 20.2% increase in rape cases, 69 of these reportedly took place on school premises. If our children are not safe at school, then where?
Behind these numbers are people with names who either had their lives cut short or violated against their will.
By Cele’s own admission, the killing of more than 6 200 in just three months is unacceptably high, especially when you include the 31 police officers who were murdered.
Not that some lives are more important than others, but the point here is that something has gone horribly wrong when officers entrusted with protecting communities are being attacked in this fashion.
It means Cele and his top management can no longer just rush to be on TV screens or be among the first to arrive at a scene and think this will lead to a considerable drop in crime.
In this regard, National Assembly committee on police acting chairperson Nocks Seabi aptly put it when he said this points to an urgent need for strategies to prevent the killing of officers.
Ramaphosa may have been convinced by Cele’s “moves”, but the stats say something has to give.
And again, you do not have to guess who suffers the most as a result of these political mishaps, because the answer lies in the numbers.
Cape Times