The energy sector should be more open so that anyone who wants to produce energy can do it, Congress of the People (Cope) chairman Terror Lekota said on Friday.

Lekota said farmers had to be put in a situation where they could produce their own energy, for their own consumption, and be able to sell the excess.

"They (energy producers) must be allowed to sell to the national grid."

Speaking to a handful of white commercial farmers at Trompsburg on security, Lekota said all government entities and specifically the police had to be de-politicised.

He said the police service was divided along two lines, those who were members of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, in alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the ANC, and those who did not belong to unions.

This resulted in poor service delivery and crime prevention.

"Police are divided and they can not work, because a divided organization cannot function well."

Lekota said he had been criticised for taking away the commando system, but that this was not true.

He said the country's constitution held that crime prevention was the work of the police.

Lekota, former defence minister, said commandos were dissolved as police management told the department of defence they were ready to combat crime in those areas.

The Cope chairman also addressed a community meeting in Madikgetla which finished without incident.

During the meeting an ANC motor convoy moved through the streets of the small informal settlement shouting ANC slogans, but it did not disrupt the meeting.