Police Minister Bheki Cele. (Paul Botes/M&G)
Drunk with power, a younger and highly indulged Julius Malema as ANC Youth League president once bullied a foreign correspondent his political organisation had invited to their headquarters for a press conference. The BBC journalist was dragged out of the hall by Malema’s henchmen in their ANC regalia at the behest of the party’s rising star. That was more than 10 years ago. Riding high on the fumes of power and secure in the backing of then president Jacob Zuma, his petulant and obnoxious behaviour was excused by many and dismissed as the virility of youth.
That April afternoon performance in 2010 was replayed this week, when Police Minister Bheki Cele bullied — and in the end overpowered — the director of civil rights lobby group Action Society, Ian Cameron. At a community safety event in Gugulethu, Cape Town, he berated Cameron in a heated exchange, and Cameron was eventually forcibly removed from the venue.
Whatever, or rather however, one feels about the issues raised by Cameron, there was a matter on the table for the minister to respond to. Instead, Cele chose to trumpet his own struggle credentials, and on that basis, argued that he was better placed to understand the criminality taking place in Gugulethu. Encouraged by some of the audience, who had now turned against Cameron, his henchmen — our police officers — proceeded to escort the director from the event.
What do we call this behaviour? We should be careful not to dismiss it as we once did with Malema all those years ago. The theatrics, something that has become common in the world of politics, a la outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, only serve to muddy the waters and confuse the citizenry about the core issues at hand. In our case, the safety and security of the most vulnerable. Do we know what Cele and his government’s plan is to deal with rampant crime?
With a population that stands at just over 100 000, Gugulethu has among the highest murder rates in the country. For anyone from the township who attended the event, what they gleaned was clearly Cele’s idea of his “glorious” struggle past and his distaste for Action Society — and very little about a more secure future for their families in a township consigned to the sidelines of the affluent suburbs of Cape Town. That’s the hard reality.
One could argue that to compare the theatrics of a clearly power-drunk Cele to that of Malema — who held no public office at the time — 10 years ago is unfair. The latter’s outbursts had no demonstrable effect on anyone, while the police minister made a farce of a public event that could have proved beneficial for Gugulethu’s residents.
But, both events show the deterioration of our politics, losing its substance and credibility, and giving greater voice to civil rights groups to which, in times past, the majority wouldn’t have cared to listen. Today, AfriForum is standing guard at our borders as a boisterous ANC, exemplified by Cele this week, fails to deliver.