Cele warns Alex’s community against blaming foreign nationals

JOHANNESBURG — Police Minister Bheki Cele has warned residents of Alexandra against blaming foreign nationals for crimes in the area.

Cele and other senior police officials were in the township of Johannesburg on Sunday after at least six members of the community were shot dead in separate criminal incidents on Thursday evening.

At a community meeting held at a local stadium, various members of the community suggested that the presence of foreign nationals fueled crime in the area.

Tshepiso Makwela is among several township residents who believe foreign nationals are the main drivers of crime in the region and the rest of the country.

“If you can go out right now in Alex, on every corner there’s someone selling drugs. And when you find the person delivering the child, it’s always a foreign national. So these people are doing a lot of harm, instead of doing a lot of good.”

However, Cele denied this, saying the available data suggests otherwise.

“We have 145,000 criminals who are in corrections as we speak in South Africa. 18,000 of them are foreign nationals, which means the majority remain South African,” Cele said.

The Minister of Police encouraged residents of Alexandra to partner with the police to identify and report criminals, regardless of their nationality.

[UNDERWAY] Slow @SAPoliceService response, lack of police visibility, insufficient police resources, influx of undocumented people, availability of drugs and alcohol and high levels of contact crime top the order of the day to #AlexandraImbizo pic.twitter.com/xumw5ryvFw

Lirandzu Themba (@LirandzuThemba) July 17, 2022