Police Minister General Bheki Cele says Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema ‘has crossed the line’ in levelling threats at police officers in ‘reckless, irresponsible and dangerous statements’ at the weekend.
He was responding to reports of Malema’s statements at the weekend when, according to IOL, he told party supporters that the police had colluded with the white community and abused EFF supporters in recent protests against what the EFF claimed was racism, at Senekal and in Brackenfell.
Malema was quoted as saying: ‘If SA police want a fight they must declare it. We will treat them the same way we treated them in the 80s. We will not only fight them at the picket lines. We will go to their homes and fight them in their own houses with their own families.’
Cele said Malema was advocating violence against police officers and their families and that the police would not take such threats lightly.
He said: ‘I think the EFF leader has crossed the line, you are not going to threaten the police and think they will just fold their arms.
‘The job of the police is clear and is prescribed in the Constitution, which is to protect, prevent, combat and investigate crime.
‘Police are also there to uphold and enforce the law, so no one has the right to threaten the police when they conduct their work.’
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said: ‘For a person like Mr Malema, who is also a public representative, to stoop so low and put the lives and families of law enforcement officers at such potential risk is highly irresponsible.
‘This also happens at a time when we have been pleading with the populace to assist in the fight against police killings, which are on the rise.’