Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed more details about his surprise visit to former President Jacob Zuma
Samkelo Mtshali
DURBAN – POLICE Minister Bheki Cele says that his visit to former President Jacob Zuma’s expansive R246 million KwaDakwudunuse Nkandla homestead on Thursday was to raise his concerns and hear the concerns of the former head of state and to avoid a disastrous situation.
Cele was speaking on Friday as he announced the South African crime statistics for the third quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year.
He said that a lot had been made of his visit to the sprawling Zuma homestead in the KwaNxamalala village and that this was “because this is maybe high profile”.
“There are many cases, many cases, where we make the visit if you can make a contribution to prevent that thing to happen before it happens and becomes a disaster.
“We still have the Marikanas, many people believe many things could’ve been done before that could have prevented it,” Cele said.
On Thursday, Cele arrived at Zuma’s homestead in a convoy of luxury state German sedans, but his path was blocked by MKMVA who expressed their displeasure at Cele’s presence.
“So it was on that score to speak to the former president to raise some concerns that were raised, hear his concerns and see where to take those concerns forward both as a responsible citizen of the country, but as a person that has (sic) extra responsibility, that if things can be prevented, it’s always much better than react after those things have happened,” Cele said.
He also defended his use of the state vehicles for the visit saying that even when they were on the party campaign trail, they were allowed to use state vehicles as ministers.
“I would not have then taken an Uber to go and see the former president, so I took the cars that are there and really several things were spoken,” Cele added.
In his crime statistics, Cele said that the National Crime Statistics from October to December 2020 do not paint a good picture, and hence forced the SAPS to dig deep and put the shoulder to the wheel.
“In the three months of reporting, a 6.6 % increase in murder was recorded.
This means 389 more people were killed compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year.
“Mpumalanga province recorded the highest increase of 13,7% when compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year. Limpopo, North West and Northern Cape provinces recorded a decline in their murder cases. 193 of the murders were as a result of domestic violence,” Cele said.
