Page 6 - Police World Edition 2 2013

Children on the Moon
Police World Vol 58 No.2 2013 6
To the Moon and Back
Bruce Lister, a member from Hertfordshire branch, and fellow officer
Jackie Reynolds decided to extend their holiday at Timour Hall - the
IPA house owned by Section South Africa.
Jackie and Jo on the Water Wing
Bruce, Jo and Deon at Timour Hall.
W e travelled to South Africa in
October 2012 arriving in Nelspruit
via Johannesburg. Our first week
was spent on Safari in and around the Kruger
National Park. We were lucky enough to see
the ‘Big Five’ and also had a close encounter
with a Black Mamba – one of the deadliest
and most aggressive snakes in the world -
when it attacked our vehicle.
In Cape Town we met up with Jo Huysamen
and her father Deon who, together with
Deon’s wife, run the Cape Town branch at
their HQ, Timour Hall.
After an extensive tour of their historic building
and facilities Jo announced that she had
planned a day out for us with two local police
officers in two days’ time.
This left us a couple of days to visit Boulder
beach and its famous penguins, Cape Point
and the Cape of Good Hope. We also
managed a hike across Table Mountain, where
Jackie agreed to my marriage proposal.
The next morning we were collected from our
hotel by Jenkins and Peregrino, officers from
the Ghost Squad - which is part of South
Africa’s traffic department. The Ghost Squad
consists of 30 specially picked officers using
unmarked high performance vehicles for
traffic and crime enforcement in the Western
Cape region. The Squad certainly have their
work cut out, with only 20% of vehicles having
insurance. There is currently no legal
requirement for car insurance or MOTs in
South Africa. Their road-death rate is
enormous, having more than our annual
fatalities in just one month.
Our daytime tour continued as we were shown
an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR)
car. The use of this technology is fairly new in
South Africa but growing. We also visited the
Western Cape traffic control room before
moving on to Nyanga (or Xhosa) which
translates as ‘The Moon’. Nyanga is a huge
township on the outskirts of the city with a
population of over a million. It is quite an
intimidating place due to its reputation and
notoriously high murder rate. On the previous
afternoon, following a routine traffic stop, two
of our host’s colleagues were shot - a stark
reminder of the dangers they face daily.
On a lighter note, our midday appointment
was a ride on the South African police Water
Wing. Launching from the container port in
Cape Town we sped along the coast taking in
views of Robben Island and Table Mountain,
and the football world cup stadium, before
cruising through the V&A harbour.
Later that evening Jenkins and Peregrino
invited us along on an operation targeting the
local street racers. We had only been on the
road for about 10 minutes as we spotted a car
jumping a red light. The resulting pursuit
ended with a collision. The rest of the evening
was just as eventful with the Ghost Squad
corralling a street racing cruise, and
identifying a number of stolen and illegally
modified vehicles. We also had time to return
to ‘The Moon’ by night – a wholly different
experience than in daylight.
Bruce Lister
Interested in IPA
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