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Good collaboration between private security and police : Cele

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Police Minister Bheki Cele has told the Human Rights Commission hearings into the July 2021 unrest that there’s good collaboration between the private security companies and the police in combating crime.
Cele told the commission in Sandton north of Johannesburg that there are also new laws to address some of the ills in private security companies.
Cele testimony at the commission:

He was responding to questions about the events that led to private security companies setting up roadblocks and allegedly shooting at people in Phoenix, north of Durban.
“There are good collaborations between private and the police. I must also say some of them have the best equipment as private security companies but many of them have been closed down because of the things they do especially in the taxi industry. They are causing a lot of problems. There’s a new law that’s been signed by the president. We are relooking at their contribution and their scope.”
Police were threatened
Cele also told the commission that police could’ve done more to prevent the situation from escalating but they were threatened. He says police in KwaZulu-Natal were threatened by the instigators of the unrest that their families would be killed if they participate in efforts to quell the violence and looting of businesses.
About 350 people died in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng during the week-long riots. Cele is the first witness to testify in the Gauteng leg of the hearings.
“Besides that police themselves had some problem. They could’ve done much better. There was a big campaign of delegitimizing them. Not only that, even scaring them. So you slow them down. I remember there was a message that tell all those police that are living in Umlazi not to come back there even if they don’t come back they won’t find their wives and their children,” says Cele.

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