By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Police Minister Bheki Cele denied claims by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that he told them about an alleged assassination attempt by Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
Members of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces were in Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday to debate President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address.
Ramaphosa delivered his address on Thursday and announced his decision to declare the energy crisis a national disaster.
Cele told MPs that on Wednesday before SONA, he had a long meeting with EFF secretary general Marshall Dlamini where he refused to confirm that the IFP said they would kill Dlamini.
Earlier this month, the EFF claimed a police report suggested that a yet-to-be-identified IFP leader in KZN was planning to assassinate Dlamini.
The allegations come after EFF leader Julius Malema announced in a press briefing that the party would support all motions of no confidence in all IFP mayors in municipalities where the party previously voted with them.
Cele said Malema should be angry against the alleged assassination, but not with him.
“He was there to urge and begged me to confirm that I’ve said IFP will kill him, and when I refused, he promised me that life will come to be difficult for me. “So, President of the EFF, you were lied to. You must be angry but not with me. It is not me who lied to you, to put you to come on national TV to tell the world the wrong things.
“It wasn’t me, you go and correct it with your SG, I spent 47 minutes with him and then he refused.”
Dlamini, however, objected, saying that the police minister was a “coward” who initiated the interaction.
“He proposed to let us meet in Cape Town. So, if he is scared of the IFP, he must not use my name; he is a coward,” said Dlamini.
Dlamini insisted that Cele had called him about the alleged plot to assassinate him.
“Let me address this coward of the ANC. The question he should be responding to is: did he not call me on Saturday? He called me, not the other way around, and his call was very clear,” said Dlamini.
Malema also claimed that Cele wanted to implicate the EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu in Hillary Gardee’s murder.
The 28-year-old, who went missing in April, was the daughter of former EFF secretary-general turned attorney Godrich Gardee.
Her body was found dumped in the bushes outside Mbombela in Mpumalanga in May.
“The deputy president of the EFF has been targeted by the leadership of the police which was willing to connive with suspects and persuaded suspects to put the name of the deputy president of the EFF in the murder of our former secretary general’s daughter.
When they refused after being beaten, money has been offered to them to implicate the deputy president of the EFF in the murder of our own daughter, why do they do this? it is only known to them,” said Malema.
He added: “But I am using this example to demonstrate to you that the leadership of the police is working with criminals, and for as long the leadership of the police is working with criminals, we will never defeat crime in this country.
“It is the responsibility of the so-called president to remove Bheki Cele with immediate effect because he has failed the people of South Africa.
“What happened to our artists Dj Sumbody, AKA, we will never get to know because the police are on the payrolls of the criminal syndicates.”