Moyahabo Mabeba
Growing up in rural Moletjie in Limpopo, Ishmael Matjeka witnessed the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) through his childhood. Even as a young boy he decided to dedicate his life to protecting vulnerable women and children.
Since then, Sergeant Matjeka has become one of the most celebrated police officers at the forefront of South Africa’s fight against GBV.
Since joining the police service in 2010 at Erasmia police station in Pretoria, most of his cases have involved violent crimes against women.
In less than five years, the specialist investigator has managed to secure 19 life sentence imprisonments for several serial rapists who were tormenting women and children.
His most recent case was the biggest of his career. He led the investigation of the serial rapist Prince Mabalena, who was sentenced in July to 16 terms of life imprisonment and an additional 15 years for 36 counts of rape.
“What is so sad is that when you investigate these cases, you often find that the perpetrator and the victim are related in one way or another. This tells you that women are abused by people they know, the people who should be protecting them,” Matjeka said.
He makes it very clear that he is not done putting perpetrators of GBV behind bars.
“Those who take advantage of women have no place in our communities. We will do everything in our power to arrest them and let the law deal with them,” he said.
