ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has accused Police Minister Bheki Cele of inferring with the work of the police. Mashaba said this during a march to police headquarters in Pretoria on Thursday. He was addressing ActionSA supporters who were gathered outside Cele’s offices where the party handed a memorandum of demands.

LET TRAINED OFFICERS DO THE WORK 

Mashaba said Cele should let trained officers do their work without his interference. "We just ask him to focus on providing political direction and stop interfering with the work of the police," he said. He said Cele should also let the police commissioners do their work. "He cannot be the minister of police, be a spokesperson, do the work of the commissioner. We have a national commissioner who is a qualified policeman," Mashaba said. He said Cele should work on making sure a Thabo Bester situation doesn’t repeat itself. Bester was convicted in 2012 for the rape and murder of his then girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu. A year earlier, he was found guilty of raping and robbing two other women. Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centrer in May last year after he faked his death. He was caught in Tanzania with his lover Dr Nandipha Magudumana.

60% OF POLICE STATIONS ARE DYSFUNCTIONAL 

The memorandum that the party submitted said 60% of the police stations are dysfunctional and telephone lines are not working. "We compiled a list of some of the most dysfunctional police stations in South Africa. Out of the hundreds of responses ActionSA received, more than 60% of responses highlighted police stations where telephone lines aren’t working, and more than 50% indicated a lack of electricity at police stations during load shedding," said Mashaba. He also said most police stations do not have enough vehicles. "The broader list of issues facing police stations includes understaffing, lack of appropriate equipment, decaying infrastructure, incompetent staff, inability to open cases among other issues," he said. Mashaba has given Cele three months to outline a plan on how he plans to address the issues faced by the police stations in the country.