Cele appealed to ANC members to win back the public's confidence.
Former police minister Bheki Cele says the ANC will not be able to fool its supporters all the time.
He was speaking in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday at the party’s memorial service for the late ambassador to France, Nathi Mthethwa.
“We may think that we are bluffing people… You can fool some people, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. There comes a time when people say, ‘We see what you are up to.’
“Then they leave you to walk alone, you will be thinking that they are with you, but in reality, you are walking alone,” he said.
ANC renewal
Cele said that, in order to regain public trust, the ANC must apologise for all the wrongs it has committed.
“People do not hate the ANC; they are just angry. The first thing that we are supposed to do is to humble ourselves and admit our transgressions.
“But it should not end there, we need to correct ourselves, and once we have done that, we must do the right thing,” he said.
ANC public image
He said there was a time when ANC members were proud to walk with their party T-shirts in public, but he said this is no longer the case.
“We used to be the pulse of communities. We used to walk tall,” he said.
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He said another problem is that once some party leaders get into powerful positions, they neglect the communities they are supposed to serve.
“They are people who use the ANC to get into positions of power… we have to go back to the basics of serving the ANC and not ourselves,” he said.
Support for the ANC
Cele blamed ANC members for the party’s declining support.
He told ANC members not to leave the party, but to persevere through the challenges the party is facing.
“Do not follow those who have left the party to form their own parties, do not allow yourselves to be stolen, stay in the party because this is our children’s inheritance,” he said.
Madlanga commission
Cele is one of three police ministers that has been implicated in political interference in the work of the police.
He told Newzroom Afrika on Thursday that he will only comment about his alleged interference when he appears before the Madlanga commission.
Police raids
At the same event Cele said he had noticed the police raids that took place on Thursday at the deputy national commissioner of police’s house in Pretoria and at the home of Senzo Mchunu’s Chief of Staff Cedrick Nkabinde.
“Last week in the Western Cape 26 houses were raided of people who stole R1.2 billion from the Cape Town municipality. But no one is talking about it they did not inform the reporters that they must go there with their cameras…the white people are happy.
“I do not know why corruption smells better when it is being done by a whiter person but smells bad when it is being done by a black person,” he said.
Nathi Mthethwa death
In relation to the death of former ambassador to France, Cele said South Africans have not shown much sympathy for him and those that loved him.
“The priests must go to the mountain and pray that He does to South Africa what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. South Africans, you are Sodom and Gomorrah; you do not have a conscience and a heart,” he said.
Mthethwa is also one of the implicated politicians in the Madlanga commission.
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