Fortunately for Bheki Cele, yesterday’s release of the April to June crime statistics came well after the recent Cabinet reshuffle.
The crime statistics would surely have forced President Cyril Ramaphosa's hand, wouldn’t they?
Allowing for the fact that far fewer crimes were committed in the same period last year, when we were under hard lockdown, this year’s numbers still make for sobering reading.
Compared, more fairly, with figures from 2019, there were still increases in several crime categories ‒ 6.7% for murder, 5% for sexual offences and 13.1% for aggravated robberies such as hijacking, for example.
Accepting that the police cannot be everywhere all the time to prevent crime, it will still be interesting to see how many convictions follow for the 5 700 murders recorded in the three months under review. If they cannot prevent crime, we should be able to rely on their investigation skills, right?
Cele talks a good game, but cannot deliver the desired results. Even without the dismal figures reported, how he survived the reshuffle ‒ after the complete and abject failure of the police he commands during the looting ‒ is beyond me.
The Cat in the Hat is full of bluster, famously urging police officers to fight back against criminals and not die with gun in hand, yet his charges stood back and did nothing to prevent the looting which has cost billions and left many unemployed.
With tongue firmly in cheek, one wonders whose photos he has under the hat.
The Independent on Saturday