COLONEL Nathaniel Kweyama, Station Commander at Berea Police Station bids a fond farewell to the Berea community this month as he enters retirement.
The head of Berea SAPS hasserved the local community for three years and this month celebrated 36 years of unbroken service as a police officer around the country.
Kweyama recalled wanting to be a fireman as a little boy growing up on a farm in Ndwedwe, North West of Durban despite his mothers hopes of him becoming a teacher. “She took me to the teacher's training college but I decided to become a policeman so joined the police college. I started my service in Wartburg and moved around a lot, was in Soweto, Tugela Ferry, then Durban in 1990 and I saw much unrest during those politically intense years. It was a very different time, police were targeted in those years because of the politics. But I've seen it all, the old and new regime,” he said.
Kweyama spent many challenging years investigating some scary cases while at the Durban Murder and Robbery Unit. “I think the most harrowing one was the case of Sibusiso Mkhize, a cop killer in the 90s who had killed 28 policemen. The day we cornered him in a building near Isipingo Rail was a trying one. He was using hand grenades although he lost the battle, seeing some of my colleges injured was a terrible sight,” he said.
The other notable case Kweyama was involved in was the investigation of the Phoenix Sugar Cane serial killer, Sipho Twala, who lured women under the guise of offering them job opportunities then raped and killed them in the cane-fields. “Our team managed to get him after six months and we even received a visit from the Swiss police to find out how we made such a breakthrough because it was the fastest one they had seen in a serial killer investigation,” he said.
The highlight of his career he said was when he became the station commissioner at his hometown Ndwedwe, while the funniest incident in all his years as a cop came while on a chase in the middle of the night. “We were in a sugar cane field and chasing a Wartburg suspect when the van rolled over. I was driving so turned to my partner to ask if he was alright and he said, “No. I'm dead.” We were disorientated so I just told him to pinch himself and couldn't stop laughing,” he said.
Kweyama said while reflecting ahead of his retirement he felt he had done all he set out to do as a policeman and was ready to enter the next chapter of his life hoping to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren. “I really enjoyed my time at Berea, especially the people, they are very different here and so kind and giving. I will never forget the women who gather and pray for our policemen very week and even have a prayer at the station before the busy Christmas season. There's also the business community that go out of their way to assist where they can. We didn't have lights during the elections one year and a captain said don't worry, made a call and a business lent us a generator. It is different here, people listen and have respect which is something I will miss,” he added.
