Sergeant Lufuno Mudzuli, a sector manager at Reiger Park SAPS, walked away with the man of the year award at the Gauteng SAPS Excellence Awards ceremony which was hosted at the Batter Boys Conference Centre in Montana, Tshwane, on October 28.
Before this, Mudzuli won the man of the year award at district level.
Mudzuli, who has served in the SAPS for more than 10 years, said he is excited and motivated to receive the award and it means a lot to him.
“I won this award because I’m a dedicated police officer and sector manager. I’m close to my community and that has enabled me to make a lot of drug-related arrests and confiscate several firearms. I’m proud of myself and I hope to continue doing the good work that I’m doing in the community,” he said.
Mudzuli added that he has introduced various structures in the Reiger Park Police Station which are the CPF sub-forum, CPF Women’s Desk, CPF community patrollers, street committees and the neighbour watch.
“In terms of assisting the community, I went the extra mile. I established the NPO Thusang Community Development. It aims to help disadvantaged families. I have also implemented community vegetable gardens.
“My team and I have been on the forefront of a lot of community empowering and uplifting programmes, such as sport against crime and substance abuse talks,” he expressed.
He said he has been engaging with the community every quarter, to establish crime forums and recruiting patrollers, reservists, WASP, youth crime desks and informers.
“As we all know, GBV is one of the problematic issues we have in the country. I normally host women empowering campaigns, encouraging women to take a stand against GBV and other problems they face,” he said.
He said he believes a good police officer is someone who takes an interest in what is happening in his/her community.
“You have to foster a good relationship with the community you serve so that they can have trust in you as a police officer,” he concluded.
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