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Police Minister Bheki Cele just revealed that more than 7 000 police officers have been charged with various crimes in the last five years, including committing murder, rape, cash-in-transit heists, and kidnapping.

Honestly, I can’t believe this heinous man is still around, let alone sitting in parliament giving Saffas the lowdown on how many SAPS employees, including police officers, completely discard the law (never mind morality or humanity) on a regular basis.

Cele said that all these police crimes were allegedly committed between the 2018/19 financial year and 2022/23 period, with some officers already convicted and others still on trial, per IOL:

“The total number of personnel, appointed in terms of the South African Police Service Act and who were charged for criminal offences, is 6,843. The total number of personnel, who were appointed in terms of the Public Service Act and who were charged for criminal offences, is 323,” said Cele.

Out of the more than 7,000 officers charged with various crimes, 686 were successfully prosecuted in court by the National Prosecuting Authority. This is seriously maddening – is anyone doing their job properly? Does nobody care?

When MPs from the EFF and Freedom Front Plus inquired in July, Cele faced criticism for refusing to say how many police officers had been criminally charged.

Now the minister is admitting that in the 2022/23 financial year, 35 officers were charged with murder, 34 officers were charged with robbery, and 31 officers were charged with rape. The other crimes the police were involved in included kidnapping, fraud, human trafficking, truck hijackings, rhino poaching, tampering with essential infrastructure, drug dealing and corruption.

Granted, this here leader of the police is the same man who said last year that a 19-year-old girl was lucky to be raped by one man and not a gang of eight or 10:

1. Bheki Cele is a certifiable moron.
2. Is this how the police think about rape? That victims in South Africa are lucky when they’re only rapped by one person? Is this the state of our nation? pic.twitter.com/jgaXaR8oDT

— Mudzuli Rakhivhane (@Mudzuli_Rakhi) August 2, 2022

That kind of comment does major damage – Cele should be charged for that alone.

The Western Cape, as it turns out, is the province with the most officers going rogue, per Cape Town ETC. The province recorded 1 360 personnel out of 7 166 who were charged with crimes between 2018/ 2019 and 2022/ 2023.

For crying out loud. We are leaderless and we are in trouble.

[source:capetownetc&iol]