Cops honour best detective

2008-08-20 21:42

Thabisile Khoza

White River - Inspector Theo van Rensburg has been declared the best policeman in the small Mpumalanga town of White River for ensuring that two rapists were jailed for 75 years each.

White River police station spokesperson Constable Gerald Sedibe said station management and Van Rensburg's colleagues had decided to honour Van Rensburg for his excellent detective work.

The rapists had raped three women and a teenager in separate incidents in March last year.

On March 4, 2007, a 42-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter were raped in bushes in Peebles outside White River while on their way to visit the woman's husband.

Two days later, the same men raped two women aged 23 and 25 who had been looking for work in White River. The men lured them to a farm near Phumulani village with promises of secretarial jobs, but raped them instead.

Van Rensburg was put on the case and arrested 29-year-old Clive Ngomane of Jerusalem Trust and Ronny Mohlala, 30, of Bushbuckridge that same month.

Last week, they were locked up for good.

His boss, detective branch commander Captain Erhard Stroh, said Van Rensburg was a role model for many of his colleagues.

- African Eye