South African Police

[JPL]

Warrant Officer Pieter Odendaal, 42, and three other police officers were decorated for bravery yesterday by national police commissioner Bheki Cele at the police training academy in Pretoria West. Odendaal, who has been in the force for 21 years, and Lieutenant-Colonel Sanet Williams, were on their way home after their shifts when they drove past an accident scene in Kliprivier Drive, Mulbarton, southern Johannesburg, in the early hours of June 28 2009. "We immediately turned around. I ran towards the van. I realised there were flames," Odendaal said. "I opened the door and heard a woman scream: 'My baby, my baby .' I couldn't see the child because the van was full of smoke." Odendaal found the six-year-old boy under the dashboard and pulled him out of the van. He went back to the burning van four times to rescue the boy's mother, father, grandmother and a family friend. Odendaal and Williams received Gold Cross medals for bravery, and constables Amerzon Daniel McLean and John Gerald Michie received Silver Cross bravery medals for rescuing a four-year-old girl from a burning house. Read the complete article here: http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1009127.ece/Hero-cops-lauded

The article also contains a picture of Odendaal wearing his 4 police medals along with his new Gold Cross Medal.

Jean-Paul

[Chris Boonzaier]

Nice to see the cops getting some recognition... The SAP dont have an easy life.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Jean-Paul - I saw nothing in our local papers about these awards - and yet you spotted it in Canada ! Thankyou for posting - as Chris says the South African police does not have a good press. The changeover took place in 1994 and I never thought it possible that an organised and disciplined force could deteriorate so quickly. However, in any Force there are good and bad - and the article proves that there are still members prepared to act like proper Police Officers.

[Brett Hendey]

Like Mervyn, I had not known of the awards from local media. Also, I agree with Mervyn's comments on the SAP. This force has probably not regressed as much as the Zimbabwe Police, but that is hardly a compliment.

Having written that, our neighbourhood had need for the SAP early this morning and a lone policewoman did respond promptly. Without wanting to explain, I have reason to believe that she is one of the old-fashioned sort. At 2am this morning two baddies stole a motorbike from a neighbour's house, cut through a fence onto our property, dragged the bike through and evidently planned to exit via our driveway gate. Our neighbour is young and alert, unlike his neighbour (me) who is old and decrepit. and he awoke and let loose his dogs. The baddies fled down the road, leaving the bike and their woolly caps behind. Our expensively-employed private security company representative arrived promptly, followed shortly by the lone policewoman. The baddies were gone so the bike and the woolly caps were retrieved and some of us went back to bed, happy that we were still alive, unlike a retired judge in an adjacent street who was murdered in his house a few weeks ago. (By the way, no information about this murder has been released to the press because of its "sensitive" nature. What does that mean?) We in South Africa live in interesting times.

Brett

[JPL]

Just wondering how common and/or rare is the Gold Cross Medal.

Jean-Paul