By Jonk wa Mashamba
news@alexreporter.co.za
Constable Mahlako Shawa’s daily job is not for the impatient.
She works at Midrand SAPS as Call operator, receiving floods of calls.
On a daily basis, she receives endless calls from members of the public with different frustrations.
To be effective in her work, she is expected to capture information in an efficient manner. She needs to be able to communicate with callers and carefully record the details they report.
Her role also includes communicating with officers on the ground and providing them with vital information in a timely manner.
“I also help the community where I stay in most cases when they need police and ambulance services,” she says.
To able do her job, one needs to be able to multitask and work under pressure without losing focus.
However, Constable Shawa carries out her work with excellence. She was the first officer in her unit to win the Gauteng Province Awards last year.
This passionate woman is also the first member of her unit to receive an excellence award from the Gauteng province.
She’s well known in her community as a helper.
Last year December she called a meeting with community leaders and the Rabie Ridge SAPS to assist siblings who were being chased away from their late mother’s RDP by their step father.
The abusive ma was finally shown the door because the siblings had documents that proved the house belonged to their mother.
“The man has left the house and the siblings are at peace. I felt like he was taking advantage,” she said.
This 42-year-old woman from Zebediela, Moletlane village in Limpopo, has been working for the police since 2007.
Apart from her good relationship with her colleagues, she works with security officers, metro officers, different tracker campanies, CPFs and SAPS members from different units all over Gauteng, communicating via WhatsApp crime groups to ensure the community is helped.
