What terrorism? Bheki Cele rubbishes description of tavern shootings as terrorism

Pretoria - Police Minister Bheki Cele on Monday said there is no evidence to support the assertion that any of the tavern attacks in South Africa, which left more than 20 people dead over the weekend, are acts of terrorism.

“For some reason, we had a bloody weekend in the country. As 15 people were killed here, you know that two people were killed at Katlehong, four people were killed in Pietermaritzburg, two people were killed in Inanda, two young people were killed at Duncan Village. It was just a bloody weekend,” Cele spoke to journalists in Soweto.

He said that even though there are suggestions that the attacks were coordinated, there is no information to support the assertion.

“We believe that they (the attacks) coincided rather than being coordinated. Do we believe that there is terrorism as it was labelled? We do not believe that it is terrorism. It is criminality that is brutal, violent. Terrorism is a high level of criminality (which is) organised,” said Cele.

By Jonisayi Maromo.

Full story at IOL.