By Mitch Launspach
Any South African who has been a victim of the crime wave gripping our country will battle to understand how Minister of Police Bheki Cele gets a performance rating of 4 out of 5 on the Independent Media Cabinet Scorecard.
I would hate to try to explain that to the family of Charl Kinnear, the leader of the Anti-Gang Unit in Cape Town who was assassinated outside his home last year.
Nobody has been charged for his murder. Police have not explained who ordered his bodyguards to be removed, in spite of the numerous threats on his life.
Despite the petrol-bombing of more than 100 trucks last year, and the deaths of a number of drivers, the SAPS has made little, if any, progress, in bringing the culprits to book. The reign of terror has crippled transport companies, and the cost in terms of the human lives, trucks and valuable cargos destroyed has been astronomical.
Cash-in-transit heists have continued unabated, and gangs have become so bold that they have taken to ambushing trucks carrying gold from the smelters and even from mines.
During the initial Covid lockdown, security was withdrawn from our entire rail network, with the result that a huge percentage of our critical rail infrastructure – railway lines, electrical cables and railway stations, were vandalised and looted to such an extent that they will probably never recover.
If the high-profile crimes aren’t getting any attention, how much attention is the daily onslaught of house burglaries, car hijackings, rapes, murders, gender-based violence, robberies and drug-related crimes, likely to get?
And while this mayhem continues to escalate, and citizens cower in fear, where does Minister Cele spend the bulk of his time?
Chasing surfers on the beaches! That’s a fail on anybody’s scorecard!
The Star