#WomensMonth: SAPS pays tribute to women in law enforcement

In celebration of Women’s Month, the South African Police Service [SAPS] celebrates its women in blue who often push through misperceptions and gender expectations to create a voice for themselves in a male-dominated environment. This time, SAPS would like to introduce the nation to one of the organisation’s female crime scene experts. Lt-Col Lindiwe Khuzwayo (42), is one of 387 female crime scene examiners in the country and is based at the crime scene management section in Pretoria. She has 16 years’ service, having joined the organisation in 2006. She holds a masters degree in science as well as business administration. As a crime scene expert, she is exposed to various types of crime scenes: murder incidents, excavation of shallow graves, post-mortems, rape cases, robberies and various other cases.

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The roles and responsibilities of such an expert are to attend to crime scenes for the purpose of documenting, collecting, preserving, packaging and transporting of forensic evidence. Experts also reconstruct crime scenes and examine forensic evidence towards linking perpetrators to the incident. Such evidence is collected and taken through to the forensic science laboratories for further analysis. To qualify as a crime scene expert, operational members or individuals from external environments must be in possession of a degree or diploma in natural science or forensic investigation. Following their appointment in a post, they undergo further training for a minimum of two years.

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Khuzwayo finds pleasure in her job when the forensic evidence she collects from crime scenes results in a conviction of perpetrators of the law, thus ensuring justice for the victims. “My line of work requires a dedicated, bold and determined person to perform such duties with ease and professionalism. I encourage the youth to join the service with the aim of making our country a safer place.” During the years of experience in crime scene processing that led to her expert status, Khuzwayo has processed a number of cases where perpetrators were taken to court and ultimately convicted. Through securing life imprisonment sentences in some of these cases, she has ensured perpetrators no longer pose a threat to their victims and all people in South Africa. For that, we salute this woman in blue for putting her country first.