TWENTY-SIX years after having joined the SAPS in 1993, Komani-based Warrant Officer Ziphathe Songca was recently crowned as the Eastern Cape’s detective of the 2017/18 financial year.
The announcement was made at this year’s SAPS provincial excellence awards ceremony, held in King William’s Town earlier this month.
The 54-year-old received the recognition for his work on a case of malicious damage to property, rape, highjacking and robbery that happened in 2017 in Komani, where two armed men highjacked a VW Polo motor vehicle in Westbourne.
According to Songca, the robbers tied the man, who was driving up, using a shoelace, and drove to the direction of Lessyton, where they took turns raping his girlfriend.
“From there they drove back to Komani where they picked up a hitchhiker who was going to East London but instead drove back to the Lessyton direction where, on the way, they robbed the hitchhiker of his leather jacket, cellphone and shoes before pushing him out of the moving vehicle,” said Songca.
The perpetrators are then said to have dropped off the driver of the vehicle (boyfriend) and his partner in different spots along the N6 route and gave the girlfriend a R10 note to catch a taxi back to town at night where she reported the case upon her arrival.
Songca said they managed to catch the suspects when they traced the phone taken from the victim and located it in Toiskraal (Ndlovukazi).
“The phone was being used by the girlfriend of one of the suspects and that is how I managed to break through the case and subsequently apprehend the two suspects,” he said.
The case was heard before the Komani Magistrate’s Court, where Songca successfully opposed bail of the twosome before the matter was transferred to the Grahamstown High Court, where the suspects were both found guilty and sentenced.
They were sentenced this year to life imprisonment, and an additional 45 and 50 years, respectively.
For this, Songca will be among the top cops to represent the Eastern Cape SAPS at the national awards on January 26, 2020 in Port Elizabeth.
Komani SAPS cluster commander, Major-General Funeka Siganga, said Songca’s diligence didn’t stop with the case that brought him glory.
On Tuesday this week he was celebrated for his actions that helped to secure a life sentence for a case of rape, theft and murder of last year, where a 33-year-old man raped and strangled to death an elderly woman in Hope Field farm, just outside of Komani.
The suspect, Gcobani Buyaphi, pleaded guilty to all the charges and was sentenced to two life imprisonments for rape and murder and two years for theft.
“To me this is not about the awards or recognition but just doing what is expected of every detective. When I joined the SAPS in 1993, I took an oath that I would serve with integrity, honesty, diligence and professionalism and those are the values that have brought me this far in my career,” said Songca.
Siganga said policemen like Songca brought hope to the devastated public who had given up on the police force.
“May we have many others like you (Songca). As quiet as you are, your work speaks for you and we are proud to see that there is still a crop of incorrupt police who serve the public with pride,” she said.
