Germiston Flying Suad brings relief to destitute
Two weeks ago, Ramara with his colleague, Constable Victor Mphaphuli, became instant celebrities on social media for rescuing a woman who was travelling between Nigel and Heidelburg with her aged mother and two young children when her vehicle had a punctured tyre in the pouring rain.
On October 14, Kathorus’s top anti-vehicle theft and anti-hijack member of the Germiston Flying Squad, Sgt Ronny Kgabo Ramara was crowned Gauteng’s honoured “Visible Policing Officer” in a glittering event hosted by the provincial police hierarchy of the South African Police Service.
Two weeks ago, Ramara with his colleague, Constable Victor Mphaphuli, became instant celebrities on social media for rescuing a woman who was travelling between Nigel and Heidelburg with her aged mother and two young children when her vehicle had a punctured tyre in the pouring rain.
On November 5, the crack anti-vehicle theft duo traced the hijacked Toyota Etios sedan from Edenvale to a dead-end street in Phumula Extension 21 and stumbled across the hijacking syndicate.
Besides risking their own lives by daily chasing after car thieves and hijackers, members of the Germiston Flying Squad’s stolen and hijacked vehicle unit, Ramara and Mphaphuli, are every stranded motorist’s dream on deserted roads or busy freeways.
As if their highly dangerous job is not stressful enough, in the past few months the crime-busting police pair who specialises in intercepting and tracing stolen and hijacked private vehicles and cargo trucks around Ekurhuleni, has helped over a dozen motorists stranded with their families on deserted backroads and freeways, and in the most difficult situations and at the most awkward of times.
Ramara’s smartphone is flooded with messages of praise from grateful motorists. They shower the duo with praise of thankful messages.
ALSO READ:
Police committed to rooting out crime
In an exclusive interview with Kathorus MAIL, Ramara and Mphaphuli said they derive pleasure in rendering assistance to stranded motorists and feel good to see the joy in faces of the people or families they drive back to safety, of their homes, or their intended destination after their break-down ordeal.
Motorists rescued by Ramara and Mphaphli vary from people driving alone at night to distressed women with children who find themselves alone on a deserted backroad after a tyre burst or a mechanical breakdown. “A few weeks earlier I rendered assistance to a church congregation travelling on the N3 from KZN at night”, recalled Ramara.
One of the team’s most recent exercises in “Ubuntu” went viral on social media showing the two officers helping a female motorist on her way home with her aged mother and young children in the car after a tyre burst in the rain.
Ramara believes numerous letters the team receives from many grateful motorists shows the team’s willingness to be of service to the public.
The help the two policemen offered to Pebetse Maepa, a medical doctor at the Thelle Mogoerane Hospital, on October 11, turned the two Germiston Flying Squad police officer into instant celebrities on social media.
In a WhatsApp message directed to Ramara’s seniors at the Flying Squad headquarters in Germiston, Maepa described how her journey home from her sister’s residence in Nigel with her elderly mother and two of her children, ended abruptly, living them stranded in the middle of nowhere following a tyre burst.
The doctor explains how a joyous family trip ended unceremoniously on the side of the road after her son detected a strange smell coming from underneath their vehicle. When she finally brought the vehicle to a stop and got out to check, he found the right rear tyre in tatters.
She said it was raining hard and she decided to keep the car’s hazard lights flashing and called her insurance company for roadside assistance. She waited for a long time and she was beginning to panic as it was overcast and wet when she noticed the two policemen stop their vehicle in front of hers.
“It was like we were watching a scene from a movie whereby a destitute family was finally being rescued from their misery. The family, in this case, was myself, my aged mother and my two children and the rescue was happening to us in real time”, posted Maepa on her social media page.
Asked to comment about the gallant rescue, Ramara simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s part of what I like to do as a police officer.”
Have a story?
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Zaid Khumalo (managing editor) zaidk@caxton.co.za , kathorusmail@lokshinmedia.co.za
or Aaron Damane (journalist) aarond@caxton.co.za
Remember to visit the Kathorus Mail on the following social media platforms :
Catch-up on more local news with our sister newspapers Germiston City News
Bedfordview Edenvale News, Alberton Record and Kempton Express.
