Cele comparison to Jesus odious: ID
2011-04-03 16:28
Johannesburg - Like the ANC, police Commissioner General Bheki Cele should refrain from making unpopular statements, ID parliamentary leader Joe Mcgluwa said on Sunday.
"An immediate end must be put to their desperate attempts to lure voters by making religious comparisons to the party and to condone corruption.
"It is a slap in the face for followers of the Christian faith in this country," said Mcgluwa.
This was after Cele was quoted by Beeld on Saturday comparing Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples to corruption within the police service.
"Jesus Christ had an organisation of 12 people... among those 12 there was a criminal who sat with Jesus every day," Cele was quoted saying at a police cars handover ceremony in Pretoria on Friday.
"Even when Jesus berated him [Judas], he denied that it was him who was a criminal," Cele had said.
Mcgluwa said such controversial statements allowed serious political motives to advance election campaigning such as the upcoming municipal elections on May 18.
"There is a vast difference between heaven and earth, and the most important aspect that is amiss here in South Africa is the lack of service delivery and the lack of political will to act against corruption within the South African Police Services [SAPS].
"Cele does not enjoy the confidence of the South African people, especially since his reputation was irreversibly tarnished by alleged corruption in the R500m police headquarters saga," Mcgluwa said.
Missed targets
"Apart from this, Cele, five deputies and an assortment of divisional commanders were interrogated by MPs earlier this week over the SAPS strategic plan for 2011/12 and its budget."
Mcgluwa said the three-day parliamentary grilling regarding missed targets, missed deadlines and missing details had Cele "red-faced and further added to his damaged reputation and lack of performance within his department".
"It baffles the mind why the ANC and its affiliates would compare the organisation and its members to biblical icons, when instead of having produced a prosperous re-birth of South Africa since 1994, they have instead created a legacy of maladministration and still-birth to service delivery methodologies," he said.
The Jesus comparison was not the first used in SA politics.
President Jacob Zuma was criticised a few years ago for saying the ANC will rule until Jesus comes.
In 2008, a provincial ANC leader likened Zuma's suffering in the then corruption case against him to what Jesus had gone through.
- SAPA
