Sergeant from Secunda FCS scoops up more awards
To catch criminals is woman's calling in life.
Sergeant Palesa Tsoaelo of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offence Unit (FCS) in Secunda received awards for being the FCS District Investigator of the Year for 2024, and the Provincial Investigator of the Year.
She was also the runner-up in the police district of Gert Sibande district’s Woman of the Year Award. The District Commander Excellence Awards ceremony was held on October 29 in Ermelo and the Provincial Excellence Awards on December 13 in Nelspruit.
Tsoaelo received the award of FCS Employee of the Year in 2023 and 2022. She competed in the level five to seven category at last year’s awards ceremony and will now compete in the National Excellence Awards category where the best investigator in the country will be announced.
The National Excellence Awards will be later in January in KwaZulu-Natal. This dedicated investigator began her career in the police in 2007 at the charge office in Greylingstad after completing her police training at Bisho in the Eastern Cape.
After working at Leandra Police Station, she moved to the FCS unit in Secunda, where she has been since 2015.
Tsoaelo attributed her success to dedication and hard work.
“When I receive a new docket, I immediately work on it by obtaining statements, visiting crime scenes and collecting the evidence,” she explained.
“I then trace and arrest the suspect or suspects. I do not look at the time when I am working. All I want is to work on the docket while it is still new and try to finalise my investigation.”
The criteria for winning this exclusive award include the arrests an investigator makes, the convictions, sentences, and the role an investigator plays in fighting and preventing crime by going the extra mile beyond one’s normal duties.
Tsoaelo lives up to this criterion as she rarely takes time off.
“My passion and my personal experience of gender-based violence drives me to work hard in solving the cases in my mandate,” said Tsoaelo.
She does not only work the prescribed business hours from 07:00 to 16:00 and only on standby weekends but labours around the clock to solve her cases.
Her biggest success of 2024 was winning the FCS Investigator of the Year title and also the convictions in September at Bethal Court of four accused in cases of murder, rape, robbery, attempted murder, malicious damage to property, assault and grievous bodily harm.
These men received sentences to serve a long time in prison.
Tsoaelo feels disappointed when she loses a case or when the court finds an accused not guilty and he or she is released from prison.
The biggest challenges that Tsoaelo faces in her job are a shortage of police members, a shortage of resources and people from the community refusing to give statements about what they had witnessed or when victims withdraw cases in exchange for money paid by perpetrators. She feels the latter is a wasteful expenditure and time of the state.
“The police cannot fight crime alone; we need the community’s help,” said Tsoaelo.
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