VUYO MKIZE
T hree hundred and counting. This Joburg metro police officer has made it her business to find and catch criminals.
Phumzile Mkhwanazi, from Dube, has arrested 300 criminals, including rapists, murderers, drunken drivers, kidnappers and robbers since joining the Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) in 2003.
She told The Star yesterday that patrolling the streets of the township and catching criminals, especially rapists, is something she is passionate about. On Tuesday, a rapist she arrested in 2009 was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Protea Magistrate’s Court, an achievement she is proud of.
Mkhwanazi still remembers the first time she made an arrest.
“It was in 2004 and I was working in town. I was out on my night patrols and someone came up to me and my colleague saying they had seen a man carrying a gun. We followed the man, who was walking towards a pub he intended to rob. We stopped him, and when we searched him, we found an unlicensed gun and arrested him on the spot,” she said.
However, due to lack of experience in the criminal justice system and how to testify in court, Mkhwanazi lost her first case and the man walked away scot-free. But that didn’t stop her from carrying on with her job and arresting more criminals.
Tuesday’s sentencing of Banele Ngwenya, 23,is one of her greatest achievements.
“I was patrolling along Elias Motsoaledi Road in Soweto in April 2009 at around 2am when a colleague and I heard a man screaming. When we looked to our right, there was a mob of people carrying a man who had a lot of blood on his private parts. We approached a lady who seemed traumatised and asked her what had happened. She said the man had forcefully put his penis in her mouth and she bit him,” she said.
At the time, the woman was pregnant.
“When I spoke to the investigating officer in the case the day following the arrest, he told me the man (Ngwenya) had two other pending rape cases,” she said.
Now Ngwenya will not only serve 20 years in prison, but an additional 18 years for another rape.
Mkhwanazi admitted that, at times, it is hard for her to distance herself emotionally from her violent cases.
“I’ve seen women and children become really badly affected by rape. There’s a two-year-old girl who I now regard as my daughter. She was raped by her cousin and has become so affected by it. I take her out for ice-cream sometimes at month-end just so that she enjoys herself and feels like a child,” she said, smiling.
Earlier this year, Mkhwanazi arrested a 42-year-old Emndeni father for raping his 13-year-old daughter.
“The mother and daughter lived with the father but one weekend, when the mother had gone to a ceremony elsewhere, the father came back home drunk and raped his daughter,” she said.
“The girl started showing signs of trauma, and she only told her mother earlier this year that she had been raped. He was arrested but is out on bail,” she said.
And what does this young officer do to let her hair down?
“I have a four-year-old son, and most of the time you will find us at the gym swimming pool, where he is learning how to swim. I love doing that. It’s when we get to bond,” she said.
She also enjoys shopping and singing in the JMPD choir.
But fighting crime is and will remain her first passion.
Mkhwanazi said she was born a police officer, and that by Grade 4 she “just knew” it was what she wanted to do. Her main passion is working with women and children, and arresting those who commit crimes against them.
“I want to maintain the standard I’m working at and even get better. I’d rather serve and protect others than do anything else. I’d also love to have my own team to train other officers and develop more strategies to fight crime.”
JMPD spokesman Wayne Minnaar said: “Phumi is very diligent and hard working. She has done very well arresting criminals and has a very good future ahead of her. She shows lots of potential to become a very good leader.”