Courtesy to City of joburg city.
Despite receiving a brand-spanking new VW hatchback and three coveted awards, Gerald Nxumalo, the reigning JMPD Officer of the Year, is mostly grateful for the recognition that comes with the accolade.
“I am happy for the acknowledgement, it validates what I do on a daily,” says Nxumalo, crowned recently at the Public Safety awards.
The celebrated officer, known to his peers as ‘General’ or ‘Super Cop’, received the honour after what he says have been 14 “intensive” years in uniform.
He served for three years as an undercover police officer, another three as a member of the Moroka Trio Task Team, and a further three with the Johannesburg Flying Squad, before moving to Region B, where he is currently stationed.
A widower and father of two, Officer Nxumalo has dedicated his Officer of the Year Award to his late wife. “It’s for all the late nights at work. At one point, she complained to me ‘what are we getting for your dedication to work because there was no change in our lives?’” he says.
Nxumalo’s dedication didn’t go unnoticed. He also won the regional officer of the year award. He boasts over 250 arrests to his name, probably a Public Safety record.
He says the JMPD award is credit for his work mainly in 2014 when he arrested a dangerous criminal, who was only convicted in September last year. Nxumalo was off duty when three taxi drivers in pursuit of a suspect flagged him down. They followed the suspect to a house in Zone 2 Meadowlands, Soweto, where Nxumalo effected an arrest.
“The suspect was about to hand over his gun to me when the three taxi drivers started wrestling him for the firearm. The suspect turned out to be a police officer who had been moonlighting as a hit man for taxi squads,” he explains.
The firearm was linked, through ballistic tests, to eight murders in the taxi industry, all of which occurred in KwaZulu-Natal. He was sentenced to six life terms and Nxumalo received a commendation from the Pietermaritzburg High Court for his hard work.
“I always go above and beyond the call of duty. If you don’t love what you do, you’ll always suffer from a migraine each time you need to come to work, so you have to give it 100% or more,” he explains.