Speaking in Tshwane on Friday at an academic dialogue on femicide at the University of South Africa, Cele said male officers were not always suitable for the handling of cases involving women and children.

“I want to increase the number of officers who deal with rape cases to be women instead of men,” said Cele.

The minister also gave insight into his personal life, saying that his mother died when he was a baby, but that he had a good father who taught him about women and how to treat them.

“You see, I had a very good father. I don’t think there is anyone who had a good father like mine. He died at a tender age, at 44. I am older than he was now,” said Cele.

He said his father once told him: “You see in life, as a man, you can do anything and everything. There is one thing that you can’t do and that is to put your hand on a woman. Never ever, the day you put your hand on a woman you will have lost your manhood.”

Cele expressed his view that gender-based violence started with how children treated their parents, specifically a mother figure.

‘Mothers are supreme gifts’

“I want us to have that kind of methodology, to say to young people, especially men, that nothing is better that a parent.”

“We need this lifestyle training, saying to our children that mothers are supreme gifts. There is no supreme gift beyond a mother,” he said.

“If young boys treated their mothers with respect and love, it would carry over into adulthood and they would treat their partners and other women with the same respect,” Cele said.

“Even if you are loving, it’s a question of respect more than loving. Because you can love her but not respect her, and what comes from respect permeates throughout the entire family because everyone in the family will respect everyone.”

Cele called on all men to protect women and speak out against abuse.