A salute to our brave police officers

There is so much corruption and inefficiency in our police service that it is easy to dismiss policing as a lost cause and crime as a battle already lost.

At the same time, it is also easy to tar all police officers with the same brush. But that would be doing a disservice to the many men and women who are the literal thin blue line of honesty, integrity and dedication to duty within the SA Police Service.

There was a poignant reminder of that this week at the funeral of Detective Warrant Officer Delene Grobler-Koonin, who died in a firefight with a cash-in-transit gang in North West province last week.

Grobler-Koonin had only recently joined the elite crime-fighting unit, the Hawks. Her colleague, Sergeant Wynand Herbst, also died in the incident.

Both cops proved that they were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to make this country a safer place for all and that wearing the uniform was so much more than a job to them.

In addition, Grobler-Koonin was a major force in the movement against child and women abuse, having spent years tracking down abusers and seeing them locked up.

We salute both brave officers, for their selfless service to the people of South Africa.

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