Durban - Two senior cabinet ministers got hot under the collar during their engagements with the public this week. In separate instances, they were labelled “incompetent” over the handling of their portfolios.
Both Bheki Cele, the minister of police, and Pravin Gordhan, the minister of public enterprises, were expected to provide messages of hope with the work that was being done during their engagement sessions. Instead, they received stern criticism.
With Eskom implementing level 6 load shedding, Gordhan was the man trusted to turn things around at the state-owned power utility and stabilise the country’s power supply.
However, the power outages seem to be far from over with him at the helm. Cele’s troubles related to him being in charge of public safety and policing, and with crime statistics constantly hovering at dangerous levels, fingers are often pointed at him as acts of crime continue to flourish in the country.
Cele visited Gugulethu township in the Western Cape, where he held an engagement session to address increasing crime in the area. But it was Ian Cameron, head of community safety for lobby group Action Society, who was thrust into the spotlight by exposing how under-resourced police in Cape Town were.
Cameron told Cele how the local township community was languishing in crime and poverty, and criticised him for having lost touch with reality as the minister. His utterances triggered a heated exchange of words and he was forcefully removed from the venue by the police.
Cele also did not hold back as he told the audience about his Struggle credentials, saying he could never be lectured by Cameron about the difficulties of the people. The lobby group has since launched a petition to have Cele’s fitness to hold office discussed and debated by Parliament after the public spat.
Action Society’s website indicates that more than 70000 people have signed the petition to have Cele removed. Gordhan attended a public lecture at the Wits School of Governance to discuss the future of state-owned enterprises.
However, he could not finish the session and had to be whisked away by security after a group of unruly people hurled insults at him.
They called him a sell-out and demanded his removal and that of Eskom CEO, André de Ruyter, for the prolonged spells of load shedding. Gordhan said there were emerging forces in politics who wanted the return of state capture.
Those utterances fuelled the chaos, as the group would not let others in the auditorium air their views. Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said the backlash experienced by the ministers showed the anger and frustration of the people they were leading.
Khumalo said both ministers were aware that their departments were failing to perform their duties adequately, but they always found ways to avoid accountability because they enjoy political backing from President Cyril Ramaphosa.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE