The Congress of the People (Cope) wants President Jacob Zuma to take action against Deputy Agriculture Minister Bheki Cele for comments he made about the national police commissioner.

“If he fails to act against him, he will have said to all of us that his government condones rogue behaviour,” Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem said in a statement on Saturday.

“We know that Cele is a home boy but that must not stand in the way.”

In an interview with News24 earlier this week Cele charged that the SA Police Service was bleeding under commissioner Riah Phiyega’s leadership.

He said, under Phiyega, more and more officers were leaving the police force and accused her of reversing the good he had done while he was police commissioner.

Cele also accused Phiyega of lying.

Bloem said Cope was taken aback by Cele’s comments.

“He should hang down his head in shame.

“It is so grossly unbecoming of so senior a leader in government to act as loose cannon. His position requires him to comport himself as a deputy minister, not a street fighter,” Bloem said.

Cope said Cele’s comments did not help but only caused damage.

“Mr Cele must accept that he is no longer the police commissioner. He must also accept that he and nobody else is to blame for that. He fell from grace by his own doings. He was, therefore, forced out of office by the president in disgrace.”

Cele was removed as police commissioner in 2012 after a board of inquiry found that he had acted dishonestly and with an undeclared conflict of interest in relation to two police lease deals he signed. News24