‘Make the world feel comfortable and safe,’ Bheki Cele tells SAPS

Officers have been told to enforce the law while giving a warm welcome to guests attending the Brics summit in Sandton from Tuesday.

Police minister Bheki Cele and national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola addressed a parade of law enforcement officers at Innesfree Park in Sandton on Monday.

“We are not undermining and watering down the seriousness of this event. I am told 51 heads of state and government have been confirmed to be here. That’s not a small number of heads of governments.

“The people who will be here represent 40% of the world [population]. To have 40% of the world in one country is a serious challenge [sic]. But we are not scared and nobody should be scared. We are ready,” he said.

He dismissed claims high police visibility was only for the summit, saying Operation Shanela had resulted in nearly 100,000 arrests in the past three months.

“On May 8 we launched the operation. Since then until yesterday [Sunday] ... we have arrested 99,754 suspects. We have been doing this job long before this event. When the Brics [summit] is long gone and forgotten, we will continue with our operation. We are not going to stop,” Cele said.

The officers were also instructed to behave with discipline and be ambassadors for the country. According to the latest crime statistics released on Friday, women and children are still the main victims of crime.

“This place, from now until the last day of [the summit], is the home of the world. Make the world feel welcome and make the world comfortable and safe ... Squeeze out the criminality, open the space for people to enjoy life and say to criminals, this is not their world ... Show them what you will do to them by making their lives difficult,” he said.

Amnesty International is expected to picket outside the summit venue on Tuesday, with the Ukrainian Association of SA and the Helen Suzman Foundation, to call for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Masemola confirmed that groups would be protesting but reminded officers the protests should be within the law and the rights of protesters should be protected.

“Uphold the law and enforce it … there is no softer enforcement of the law … where people don’t listen, do that. You are trained to do it and trained to use proportional force, so use what is necessary — don’t use too much force or less force. If you use more force, that is going to be a problem,” he said.

The summit will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre until Thursday. Law enforcement agencies, including the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metro police, and SA National Defence Force soldiers have been deployed to the venue.

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