MEET THIS SANGOMA COP!

The thwasa detective arrives at work wearing her traditional regalia.

WHEN people visit a police station they expect to see cops wearing uniforms, or at least ordinary presentable clothes.

But last month, visitors to a cop shop in North West were greeted by a detective in her sangoma regalia!

Her colleagues complained about the unprofessional attire but their pleas went unheard.

Now in the new year she has been ordered by the provincial office to stop coming to work in her sangoma clothes.

The issue came to a head recently when a local resident who is also a prison warder, Isaac Phiri, went to the police station to open a case. His brother had been injured.

Instead of being greeted in the manner he was expecting, he was approached by the sangoma. “She said to me ‘Thokaza Gogo, can I help you?’”

He said he was surprised by her conduct.

“I thought it was a prank but she was for real and I knew that it was wrong and needed to be corrected,” he said.

He said he didn’t have a problem if the cop was a thwasa as he was told, but he said she needed to respect her job and the people she served.

The woman’s colleagues told the People’s Paper that they had not been at ease working with her.

They said that she was acting irresponsibly and that she had to respect her job.

North West police spokesman, Captain Paul Ramaloko, first said that the provincial head office was not aware of the matter.

But when informed, he said: “We view this in a very serious light and we will take steps to rectify her conduct and behaviour. “We will ask the member to go back to the organisation’s code of ethics.”