After a few years with the Reaction / Riot Squad, I decided I wanted to become a detective. I have had enough of all the Rambo stuff and fighting riots. The Riot Squad was an elite unit containing great colleagues and friends, but it was time to move on. I had a lot of resistance from the Colonel in charge of the Riot
I started playing rugby for the Police about two years after I started my career as a policeman. The year was 1982, and I just turned nineteen. Because I am tall, 1.99 meters or six foot six in the old terms, the position I played in rugby was lock. In the first year, I went through the ranks from third team to first
CHAPTER 14 Nearly A Professional Boxer After a few months of following Pierre Coetzer's progress in the professional ring and him winning his fights, I thought. That could be an easy way to make some money. All I had to do was fight a few locals as a professional boxer. I applied for a professional boxing license. After a few weeks and a
During the same year I joined the Riot Squad, I had a call from the police sporting office in Pretoria. They informed me I had to get ready and fit for the police boxing championship tournament in Pretoria. After my dad’s death, I started losing interest in boxing. I was playing rugby for the police and the rugby training was not as demanding as
On my return from Border Duty to East London, I accepted a transfer from the uniform branch and became a member of the Reaction Unit. Later it was renamed - Riot Squad. It was an elite unit. There were only about twelve members in the Reaction Unit. We received a lot of specialized training in SWAT procedures. The Police task force, which was
Whilst stationed at the uniform branch at the Cambridge police station, they sent me for Counter insurgent training (bush warfare). I trained at a police training camp, or farm as it was known, namely Malesoskop. Here we underwent bush warfare training. As the police handled the safety and security of the South African borders, they sent us to do border duties at the
One Sunday morning, whilst on patrol duties, I received a call on the police radio to attend to what was most probably a suicide. When I heard the name and street address, I immediately recognised it. It was the home of one of the Englishmen from my old neighbourhood. He was one of the older group of guys, against whom we, as youngsters,
Eventually, I turned eighteen and got my civilian driver’s license. I had to pass another driver’s license test to get the State’s authorisation to drive a state-owned vehicle. I considered myself a real cop now and started doing motorised patrols. In the eighties, working at a police station like the one where I was stationed, you had to master everything, from charge office
One night, I went to visit my parents. My Dad and one of his old boxing friends were sitting outside, having some wine. I sat down with them and we talked about boxing. ‘The coach makes the boxer,’ my Dad said. I disagreed, and we had a bit of an argument about it. Around nine that evening, I said my goodbyes and got
I started my police career at the Cambridge Police Station, behind the counter in the charge office. The charge office is the heart of the police. All cases and complaints get registered there, before we booked it out to the detectives and investigation officers for investigation. We held the suspects brought in during the day or night in the police holding cells, which
