The burglary of the Durban home of KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister of safety and security Bheki Cele is ”proof that crime is out of control”, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said on Monday.
Reacting to the news that Cele’s home in Durban’s plush Umhlanga suburb was burgled on Saturday, KwaZulu-Natal IFP leader Lionel Mtshali said: ”If the African National Congress’s [ANC] government needed proof that crime is out of control in South Africa, they got it.”
Cele’s home was broken into on Saturday afternoon while he was attending an ANC meeting.
Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Phindile Radebe said on Monday morning that she could confirm the burglary, but could not confirm any other details.
The provincial minister’s spokesperson, Nonkululeko Mbatha, said: ”Of course he is angry, but more so, he is very concerned.”
She told the South African Press Association that police were trying to determine whether the burglars knew the house they were breaking into belonged to the Cele or whether it was a random burglary.
Asked if the burglary was staged to embarrass Cele, she said: ”We cannot say that. We need to establish facts first.”
Mtshali said: ”We were naturally very sorry to hear about the burglary at Mr Cele’s home. This incident has certainly brought home — if you excuse the pun — the point that crime is out of control in this province and country.
”The message of Mr Cele’s burglars is clear: no one is exempt. The vulnerability of a ministerial home shows that we all are potential victims of crime,” said Mtshali.
He said he hoped the incident would lead both the provincial and national governments to ”intensify efforts to eradicate crime”.
”As the official opposition [in KwaZulu-Natal], my party, the IFP, condemns the ANC’s reckless denial that crime is out of control in this province and country. In our books, this is the ultimate evidence of government’s failure to tackle crime.”
Radley Keys, the Democratic Alliance spokesperson for safety and security in KwaZulu-Natal, said: ”I hope his [Cele’s] response is not to bolster security only around his house but around the province.”
He claimed Cele had been ”in denial” since 2004 about seriousness of the crime problem in the province.
”Fortunately nobody got hurt. Maybe he will now realise what people in KwaZulu-Natal face every day,” Keys said. — Sapa