WeeklySA_AdminEXCELLENCE: From dismantling serial-rape cases and exposing child predators to rescuing trafficking victims and strengthening community policing, seven policewomen honoured during Women’s Month embody the determination, compassion and professionalism needed to rebuild public trust in the SA…
By Len Maseko
Across South Africa, seven policewomen have been placed in the national spotlight for exceptional service in combating crime, protecting vulnerable people and ensuring that dangerous offenders are brought to justice.
The South African Police Service is honouring the officers as part of its Women’s Month campaign, “Women Leading the Reset Agenda”, which celebrates women advancing ethical leadership, professionalism, accountability and service excellence.
Their stories reach from the streets of Ga-Rankuwa to specialised police units in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West.
Together, they demonstrate the different forms courageous policing can take: responding first at crime scenes, listening carefully to traumatised children, detecting patterns across seemingly unrelated cases and constructing evidence strong enough to withstand scrutiny in court.
Their recognition comes at a significant moment for women’s leadership in the police service. SAPS is currently headed by acting National Commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane, while its public face, national spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, is also a woman.
Every survivor deserves to know that someone
believes them and will fight for them.
Justice begins when
Their prominence at the highest levels of operational leadership and public communication reinforces the campaign’s message that women are central to shaping the direction, credibility and renewal of the police service.
From the national command structure to specialised investigative units and community policing on the ground, women are increasingly visible across the full spectrum of policing.
The seven officers being celebrated therefore represent more than individual excellence: their achievements reflect a broader generation of women leading investigations, protecting vulnerable communities, communicating the work of SAPS and helping to restore public confidence in the organisation.
Sgt Bayi
In the Eastern Cape, Sergeant Vuyokazi Bayi, 45, helped secure an indefinite prison sentence for serial rapist Lechasa Glass after DNA evidence connected him to 16 cases involving women and children.
Bayi joined the police as a constable in 2012 and served with the King William’s Town Flying Squad before moving into detective work. She later investigated sexual offences at the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit and now serves in the province’s Serial and Electronic Crime Investigation Unit.
Working with Warrant Officer Sonwabile Dlomo, Bayi linked Glass to three additional dockets involving girls aged 13 and 16 and a 23-year-old woman. The further convictions followed earlier sentences that included six life terms. In June, Glass was declared a dangerous criminal and sentenced to imprisonment for an indefinite period.
Bayi, who is completing a degree in police science and specialist training in psychologically motivated crime, says compassion should never be regarded as weakness.
Sgt Luphondo-Mkansi
In Limpopo, Sergeant Sharlot Luphondo-Mkansi’s painstaking analysis brought another serial rapist to justice. The Phalaborwa FCS investigator connected cases involving women who had been searching for transport when they were lured into a vehicle, kidnapped, robbed and raped in secluded places.
Working alongside Crime Intelligence, she identified the suspect through similarities in his method of operation.
Moses Shilabi was arrested in April 2024 and, in June this year, sentenced by the Polokwane High Court to four life terms and an additional 70 years for rape, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, housebreaking and theft.
Luphondo-Mkansi joined SAPS in 2006 and has served the FCS unit since 2017. While raising three children, she completed a diploma, a Bachelor of Technology and an honours degree in policing. She was also named Mopani District’s best investigating officer for the 2024/25 financial year. Loraine Semunza
Sgt Semunza
North West investigator Sergeant Lorraine Semunza similarly relied on patterns across four cases to identify a serial rapist who had attacked women in and around Mmabatho between 2013 and 2016.
Semunza began her career at Nyanga Police Station in 2009 and joined the Mmabatho FCS Unit in 2019. Using what SAPS described as innovative investigative techniques, she identified and arrested Khushumane Mogotsi in September 2024, while he was already serving a sentence in another matter. In March this year, the Mmabatho Regional Court sentenced him to four life terms. “Nothing will stop me from finding their perpetrators and ensuring that justice is served,” Semunza said of the women and children whose cases she investigates.
Sgt Fan
In the Northern Cape, Sergeant Ilze Fan, 43, built the case that sent convicted child sex offender Coert Botha to prison for 66 years. Between 2019 and 2021, Botha lured boys aged between nine and 14 to his home, where he raped and sexually assaulted them and exposed them to pornographic material.
Fan’s investigation resulted in convictions on 13 charges. She also uncovered evidence in a separate case showing that a rape accused had fathered a child with his victim while she was still a minor. That discovery led to an additional statutory-rape charge and contributed to the offender receiving a 15-year sentence.
For Fan, every docket represents “an opportunity to restore the dignity of a victim, identify the perpetrator and ensure that justice is served”.
Constable Malearongwa Mokoena
Free State Constable Malearongwa Mokoena, 28, is among the younger officers already making a significant impact. She joined SAPS in 2019 and was the only member of her training group placed with the Welkom FCS Unit.
Her investigation helped secure life imprisonment for a stepfather who repeatedly raped his minor stepdaughter. The man had threatened to evict the girl and her mother if she disclosed the abuse. Despite his intimidation, the child found the courage to report him.
“Through my meticulous investigations, perpetrators are brought to book and victims of sexual offences reclaim their power,” said Mokoena, who is pursuing a police science degree.
Captain Karin Botha
Captain Karin Botha, a forensic social worker at the Germiston FCS Unit in Gauteng, has become a voice in court for children whose lives have been shattered by abuse and trafficking.
Known affectionately as “Tannie Karin”, she uses age-appropriate forensic interviewing techniques to obtain reliable accounts from child victims. Her work was instrumental in the conviction of three Zimbabwean human traffickers who received four life terms and 110 years’ imprisonment each.
The case emerged after four children, aged between six and 14, were intercepted with fraudulent travel documents at OR Tambo International Airport in August 2022. By earning their trust, Botha obtained detailed accounts that strengthened the prosecution.
A social work graduate with a master’s degree in forensic practice, Botha previously received a ministerial commendation for helping secure the conviction of a paedophile sentenced to life and another 100 years.
Constable Mabunda
Completing the group is Constable Vutomi Mabunda, 33, a sector manager at Ga-Rankuwa Police Station. Although she joined SAPS only in 2023, Mabunda coordinates crime-prevention programmes, strengthens community partnerships and works to improve police response times.
Frequently among the first officers at crime scenes, she closely monitors gender-based violence and femicide. However, she warns that police cannot defeat this scourge alone.
“Preventing GBVF starts in our homes, schools, workplaces, places of worship and communities,” Mabunda said, calling on society to challenge harmful norms, support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable.
Although their ranks, experience and responsibilities differ, the seven officers share a defining purpose: protecting those most at risk and refusing to abandon victims before justice is done.
At a time when SAPS is seeking to restore public confidence, their achievements show that trust is rebuilt case by case, victim by victim and community by community.
