Karen Venter
The driving force behind the Limpopo Police, Lt Gen Simon Mpembe is a man who does not mince his words and has zero tolerance towards crimes or those who commit them.
Mpembe, who has been going through the province like a whirlwind meeting with all role players in the fight against crime including his own members, both senior and junior, businesses and communities.
Mpembe was enlisted in the Police in 1978 and after his basic Police training he was detailed to serve at Kroonstad attached to the Community Service Centre performing relief duties.
He moved around a lot gaining essential policing experience in the 1980s and 1990s and was attached to various stations including Heuningspruit, Kroonstad, Cape Town, Ravensmead, Mfuleni, Kraaifontein, West Metropole Area Office, Nyanga and Bishop Lavis.
In 2000, Mpembe was appointed Deputy Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng where after he moved on to Vaal Rand in Gauteng as Area Commissioner.
From 2006 to 2009 he was Johannesburg Central Station Commander and then Cluster Commander.
Prior to taking up his current position he was once again Deputy Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng.
Among his successes during his career are the successful resolutions of political conflict amongst ANC, Pan African Congress and National Party supporters in 1994 at Driftsand as well between informal settlement leaders in Crossroads and Phillipi in 1998.
He was at the head of Operation Good Hope, a huge scale operation aimed at finding a peaceful resolution between Muslim extremists and drug lords who had already gone as far as attacking each other with petrol bombs.|
His most recent success entails the successful management of Operation Wanya Tsotsi, which resulted in the reduction of serious and violent crimes in the Vaal between 2004 and 2005.
As busy as he is, Mpembe still finds time to further his studies and is currently busy with his thesis for his Masters in Public Administration through the University of Pretoria, which is set to be completed by next year. He also has a National Diploma in Police Administration as a BTech degree behind his name.
Mpembe says his mentor is Lt Gen Mzawandile Petros, the Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng from whom he has learnt a lot about leadership.
He also says he draws inspiration every day from interaction with the communities he works in and listening to their concerns.
He describes his management style as situational saying that when he has to act tough with criminals he does so yet when he is interacting with a victim of crime he acts gently. He is a great believer in the community receiving friendly, helpful and speedy service from the Police and expects the Police in the province to maintain high visibility at all times.
Mpembe’s advice to youngsters who would like to make a career of policing is that they should join the reservists and be volunteers in the Police service.
"Study first and join the Police with better qualifications. Most importantly, have passion for a policing job. One must not be driven by money but by commitment to serving the community," he advises.