He was officially appointed to his position in January after Maj Gen Maggy Mathebula retired in December last year. Mashava’s role involves managing all policing matters within the region. He has over three decades of experience in the police force. He completed his training in 1988 and his first position was as a community service centre assistant in 1989 at the Zeerust Police Station.

As the years went by he climbed the corporate ladder and was promoted to various positions including detective commander at Levubu Police Station between 1996 and 1998 and detective commander at Thohoyandou Police Station in 2007. In 2016 he was promoted to Thohoyandou Police Station commander until 2020. In July of 2020, he became the district commander for Detective Services in the Mopani district.

Also read: ‘My career has been a joyride” says retiring Mathebula

Mashava has identified mob justice, lack of information from communities, and lack of cooperation from liquor outlet owners, as the biggest problems facing the region. He also added that the former Tzaneen cluster, Greater Letaba, Ba-Phalaborwa, and Giyani registers some of the most serious crimes, especially contact crimes (murder, attempted murder, sexual offenses) and property crimes.

Also read: Meet Tzaneen’s new station commander

The commissioner added that in order to deal with the scourge of crime, they established teams with the assistance of community police forums (CPF), street patrollers, and sister departments such as traffic, home affairs, social development, the NPA, and the judiciary. “I would like to appeal to our people to work closely with the police, this way we will improve our service delivery commitments and response times as per our oath of office.

“This will go a long way in restoring public confidence in the police,” he told the Herald. He boasts a national diploma in Police Administration and completed a BTech degree and honours degree at Unisa in Public Management. Mashava was born in Ntlhaveni Block J village and now resides in Malamulele with his wife, Solani. They have four children and one grandchild.

He concluded that he would like to be remembered as someone who collectively worked with the Mopani communities to change the crime picture and for successfully professionalising the service by dealing decisively with unscrupulous and unethical conduct by police officers in the district.