DA must stop calling for the army in the Cape Flats, Bheki Cele
The police minister says the DA is making the issue of the gang-infested Cape Flats a ‘political ball’, and the police can handle the problem
The DA is stirring trouble with its repeated calls for army deployment in the gang-infested Cape Flats‚ says Police Minister Bheki Cele."Please stop marching and stop making crime a political ball‚" Cele told a media briefing on Thursday an hour before DA leader Mmusi Maimane led a march from Manenberg to Nyanga to call for the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).Maimane’s match followed a letter to Cele on Wednesday from Western Cape premier Helen Zille‚ calling on the minister to fulfil 2017 promises by his predecessor‚ Fikile Mbalula‚ to send soldiers to the Cape Flats.But Cele said Mbalula’s pledge pre-dated Operation Thunder‚ the "stabilisation and normalisation" initiative he launched in May to target nine hotspots‚ and which he said had stabilised six of the areas."The people of the Western Cape don’t want the army‚ they want safety‚" he said. "If you give them visibility of the police and better safety‚ they will take that."He said troop deployment...
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