Lowveld Hawks officer wins prestigious award
Colonel Erhard Ströh, a member of the Mpumalanga Hawks, recently won an award for his excellent investigative work that saw the conviction and sentencing of two serial killers.
The Lowveld’s own Lieutenant Colonel Erhard Ströh recently received an award recognising him as the best investigator in Mpumalanga in the category of serious and organised crime.
This veteran police officer and top investigator won the award at the Mpumalanga Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation’s (DPCI) sixth annual Prestige Awards held at the Emnotweni Arena on October 26.
Ströh’s was awarded for his dedicated investigative work that led to the arrest and subsequent conviction of serial killers, Shaun Oosthuizen (43) and John du Plooy (33).
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Oosthuizen received his fourth life sentence plus an additional 80 years’ imprisonment from the Pretoria Regional Court in May last year.
One of the people who fell victim to Oosthuizen was elderly Mbombela resident Henrietta Catharina ‘Hetta’ Potgieter in July 8, 2018, after he broke into her home at Macadamia Old Age Home.
Oosthuizen was one of three accused in the case, however, charges against his two co-accused, Du Plooy and Maryna Lin Mam (52), whose surname was Vorster at the time of her arrest, were withdrawn due to insufficient evidence.
However, Du Plooy was sentenced and convicted in November last year for murder and robbery cases committed in 2018, thanks to Ströh’s detective work.
Speaking to Lowvelder about his award and his work in the SAPS, Ströh said he had started training as a police officer at the age of 18.
“I loved my work from the very beginning. For me it was all about the decision between right and wrong,” he said.
Ströh was first stationed at White River Police Station, where he was a uniformed officer until 1992, before being promoted to a detective.
In 1998, he applied to the anti-corruption unit of the Nelspruit SAPS, which only investigated corruption within the SAPS at the time. In 2001, he became the branch commander of the White River Police Station, a position he held until 2010.
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That was when he was given the title of group leader in Nelspruit, and in 2020, he became a member of the Mpumalanga DPCI (Hawks).
He said he joined the Hawks with a fellow detective and friend, the late Warrant Officer Gerrie le Grange, while investigating the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Leroy Bruwer.
Bruwer was a decorated member of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation unit and the Mpumalanga Wildlife Trafficking Investigation team, and was gunned down on his way to work on March 17, 2020.
He said he and Le Grange had been working as part of the task team investigating the murder when they both applied to join the Hawks.
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He said while he has won awards in the past, it was the first time he had won this specific award, and for a case that is so far the biggest of his career.
Ströh said he went into the history of Du Plooy and Oosthuizen as far back as 2010 and 2011, when the crimes they were committing had been theft and housebreaking. He said he saw how they had progressed to robbery and then murder.
“I was able to put a stop to them murdering people, and if the investigation I conducted had not been done, I fear they would still be out there, killing elderly people,” he said.
The Mpumalanga Hawks’ spokesperson, Captain Dineo Sekgotodi, said the Hawks admired Ströh from afar and had hoped he would apply to be a member with them. “When we heard he had applied, we were very happy.
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He is a committed and dedicated officer who gets up early and works late to ensure he gets his work done right,” she said.
Ströh added that he was part of the Hawks team that won the best project of the year under the leadership of Colonel Danie Hall.
This was Project Blood Orange, which saw a seamlessly co-ordinated takedown of several people, including Kruger National Park rangers and their family members, for corruption, money laundering and wildlife crimes. The arrests were executed in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng.
Ströh emphasised that each member of Hawks was an asset. “This is not Ströh’s award. I could not have done any of this without them. The SAPS does have the ability to fight organised crime in South Africa and we are proving this everyday.”
Ströh will head to the national awards for his work on the Oosthuizen and Du Plooy matter on November 17.
