'Police must not romance law, but enforce it' - Cele

Cele was speaking in KwaZulu-Natal as part of effort to fight crime and enforce level 3 lockdown regulations over the festive season.

“Yours is to prevent, combat, investigate and make sure that all inhabitants of the land are safe, and make sure that you uphold the law and most importantly you enforce the law, that is what the constitution says, it doesn’t say you romance the law, it says you enforce the law as instructed by the constitution.

“It is not in the constitution for you to be brutal and again it is not on the constitution to let criminals go, we must understand that we police under the constitutional dispensation of South Africa. We police under the tradition of human rights.”

He further reminded officer that, while enforcing the law is important, they also have a duty to protect and serve.

“Remember that your job is to serve, you are protecting South Africans but also you are serving under human rights tradition and you are human too, so those rights also apply to you.

“When you see a citizen under threat you need to protect and defend them ad if your life is under threat, you can use deadly force, that is the word of the law.”

Listen to  Bheki Cele below:

He sent a strong warning to law enforcement officials not to turn away women who visit police stations to report Gender-Based Violence issues.

“We must deal with the issue of GBV decisively, it cannot be swept under the carpet it is on the top of the SAPS agenda as we all know that it was declared by the president as a second pandemic.

Therefore, the call is very straight to all members of saps when a woman come to report at a police station that is abused by man it is not your job to tell them to go back and negotiate there will be peace, your job is to make a follow-up and arrest those perpetrators,”

“Don’t send the woman back when they report abuse, she will come again and the third time she might not come back as she will be dead.

Don’t ask who he was, whether it was father, boyfriend, or husband when he starts abusing woman that man is a dog, a donkey and we are not negotiating with donkeys. Your job is to protect these women, second don’t be funny with women and ask what they were wearing, how short the skirt was, woman have the right to be free, they don’t need permission from men to live their lives,”

He urged male SAPS members not to ask for sexual favours from their female colleagues.

“Any member of SAPS that doesn’t take seriously the issue of GBV doesn’t’ belong to this organisation

To the male colleagues, you have an extra responsibility not to abuse your female colleagues, don’t ask them for sexual favours,”

 Listen to  Bheki Cele below:

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