EDITORIAL: SA’s invisible policing

Nobody likes a bully — except fedora-wearing police minister Bheki Cele, it seems. When Julius Malema and his EFF lackeys goose-stepped into the Mall of Africa to intimidate restaurateurs into handing over their staff lists and outing their "foreign" employees, the occasion was marked by a familiar absence.

Cele’s police should by rights protect taxpaying businesses from being shaken down in the name of populism; Malema had no authority to demand employee details, or threaten to shutter establishments that didn’t grant him entry.

Only, the police were nowhere to be seen. Just as they were absent during the July unrest. And when the Patriotic Alliance arrogated to itself the title of law enforcer, as it stripped supposedly expired goods from the shelves of foreign-owned spaza shops. Cele’s cops are seldom at the scene of the crime — unless it involves a hapless gogo hawking atchar, of course.

It’s not as if the police didn’t have fair warning of Malema’s intent: news of the populist pilgrimage was broadcast well in advance. This is not the first time the EFF has been allowed to get away with a blatant disregard for the law. And as long as the police sit on their hands, it won’t be the last.