Saps pilot Tebogo flies solo in the service’s biggest helicopter

POLOKWANE – Warrant Officer Tebogo Mamogale, a flight attendant once recruited by the national police service, now serves as the commanding pilot on the H125 helicopter under the same service, six years later – and now she can fly solo in the service’s biggest helicopter.

Since 2019, she has also been the only commercial female helicopter pilot in the police in Limpopo.

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Deployed under the service’s Polokwane Airwing, she says she has always known that the journey of tending to passengers in police jets was merely a stepping stone on her way to one day flying as a pilot.

The 35-year-old mother of three, born and raised in North-West was initially deployed by the service to Polokwane after her training in 2016 and applied life-long principles taught in the service about discipline, tolerance and hard work to navigate through her career. She is the last born of four siblings, raised with firm Christian beliefs.

She credits one female pilot in particular, from the South African Civil Aviation Authority who had visited her high school many years ago to offer career guidance.

“To this day, when that woman sees me, tears flow until we part ways. She helped to prepare me for this journey and it is through her interventions that I managed to take a cabin crew licence back in 2007, prior to being a flight attendant,” she says.

In proving that it takes a village to raise a child, another good Samaritan from the South African Police Service who shared information with her about the possibility of bursaries, during her time as a flight attendant, an option that was open to all aspiring pilots. After three years and a lot of red tape, the bursary offer doubled, with the option of becoming an air-hostess with a major international carrier, but Tebogo says she kept focusing on her ultimate goal.

“It was a difficult decision because I eventually stopped working as a flight attendant and stuck to books. In my year-long study, I limited my social life. I even had very little time with family because I needed to fulfil my dream.”

She graduated for a diploma in travel and tourism in 2009, obtained a national diploma in safety management in 2020, a drone licence in 2022 and currently studies towards a B.Com degree in transport and logistics.

She received her pilot licence in 2015 – “a testing time in spirit”, because of the discipline and commitment it required.

Tebogo says her wish is to develop the youth and instil discipline and patience.

“With such principles, not even the sky is the limit. Be focused. Never be undecided in the grey areas. Trust your conscience.”