By: Khetho Dlamini and Menelisi Ndwandwe

Over one-hundred and seventy newly graduated constables drilled their way into this positions after completing their training last Friday in Chatsworth.

The former trainees are now constables and will serve in various police stations. This follows a 10 months period of training at college and 12 months of work integrated training.  Seventy-one of them are females and the other 103 are males. This marked a highest number of females on parade in Chatsworth Academy in the last few years.

“The minister implements a 50/50 policy since there is over 40% of females on parade”, said Major General H K Senthumule in her welcoming address.

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner of the SAPS, Lieutenant-General  Mamonnye Ngobeni, said, “This is a calling rather than a job. It shows how much you wanted to be part of the SAPS and need to serve the people of South Africa.” 

She went on to say that the objectives of the SAPS are to serve, protect, prevent, detect, combat crime, maintain peace and stability and lastly enforce the law. “You have the power to take a person’s freedom away from them, use it effectively”, she directed to the trainees.

Joy was written on many of the trainees’ faces as they stood to sing the national anthem that was complimented by SAPS band. As the national anthem was being sung with generals saluting, some of the parents failed to contain themselves.

Female police do smile, but not for criminals. Pictures by: Khetho Dlamini  

Lieutenant Colonel Laatz who has served 40 years in the SAPS, 26 of those as a detective and currently working in the Hawks, was there to see his own son graduate.  “As a parent, I am very proud and it’s important that trainees take the message from the generals and apply it. They will be faced with difficult situations of which they will have to make decisions within seconds so they must be truthful to themselves and the public,” he said.

Constable B Erasmus who was inaugurated during the passing out parade said, “I am very happy to go out and put into practice all that I have studied and was trained to do here at the college.”

After the drill, the newly inaugurated constables took the C K Travel and Tour buses to the various police stations that they will serve from.

Khetho Dlamini