Cele says crime shot up during Riah Phiyega tenure
Former police minister Bheki Cele says crime shot up in South Africa after a series of removals of SAPS leadership when Riah Phiyega took over as national commissioner in 2012.
He says one of the officials who was removed is the current KZN police chief, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
Mkhwanazi was removed from his role as Acting Police Commissioner in 2012 and was allegedly forced to stop pursuing any disciplinary action against Crime Intelligence Boss, Richard Mdluli.
" It disrupted the organisation, the work of the law enforcement agencies, including the police. You see it with outcomes, and our outcomes are a question of how people feel in the crime states,” said Cele.
"I'm saying that team did a wonderful job, and you could see when the team was taken off, you could see that the crime took off like a Concorde."
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Cele was testifying before Parliament's Ad Hoc Committee on Friday.
He said the crime rate has never reversed after that.
" The disruption had to be corrected as we came back because it took a lot of time disrupting it. It had to take a lot of time correcting it going forward.
"It is not just feeling sorry for the individuals, but it's the whole organisation that was messed up. But more than anything - the impact it did to the nation, and the impact it did to the safety of the people. That disruption made a lot of damage to the safety of South Africans."
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