Angel In Blue

Metro Police officer Daphne Nondala became a Germiston man’s saviour when she rescued him from hijackers. But it’s all in a day’s work.

- Aphiwe Boyce

TO SERVE and protect: it’s the motto made famous by America’s Los Angeles Police Department. And it has been adopted by our local Metro cops, who’ve claimed it as their own.

One officer who gives her all and strives to “serve and protect” 24/7 is Johannesburg Metro Police officer Daphne Nondala.

About 10 months ago, Daphne was almost killed when a negligent Tata bakkie driver knocked her over as she was waving him down in a routine stop-and search operation in Soweto. Luckily, she managed to escape with a broken pelvis and a broken ankle.

But coincidentally, at the end of November, at the very same spot on Diepkloof ’s Chris Hani Road, she also managed to save a man’s life.

DAPHNE (38) shares the happier of the two stories. Once again, she pulled a car over at a stop-and-search operation. This time the vehicle did stop, but that was only the beginning.

The muscular but short cop, who was working alone, approached the white Hyundai Accent occupied by three men. She asked the driver to produce his licence, and to open the boot. Instead, he got out of the car.

“I was shocked by this move,” she recalls. “He was tall, blocking my view into the inside of the car, and I thought he was trying to intimidate me.”

She asked the driver to return to his seat, and again requested that he open the boot. He responded that it was jammed shut and could not be opened.