Table View SAPS last week said farewell to one beloved colonel and hello to the new boss in town.
Residents, the CPF, neighbourhood watch and other stakeholders all gathered at the Table View soccer club on Thursday April 26 to say goodbye to station commander Colonel Dirk Vosloo and also welcome his succesor, Colonel Lindiwe Dyantyi.
Colonel Dyantyi had already been introduced as the acting station commander of Table View SAPS in November last year while Colonel Vosloo was temporarily deployed to Marikana in Philippi (“Acting station commander welcomed,” Tabletalk, November 29, 2017).
Around 40 people attended the event to celebrate both colonels. Colonel Vosloo was the station commander at Table View SAPS for the past eight and a half years.
He said that he was sad to leave because he had become part of the family.
“I am leaving people that I have been fortunate to have met.
“On the other hand, I am happy to have been here and I have made friendships that I hope will last for many years to come.
“It is nice to be able to hand over the reigns to someone like Colonel Dyantyi because she has a great personality and a great vibrancy about her. I have spoken to people and they only have good things to say about her stay in the past couple of months,” he said.
Table View Neighbourhood Watch chairperson, Grant Lemos, said that they will miss Colonel Vosloo because he helped get Table View to where it is today but they are happy to have someone like Colonel Dyantyi take over the position.
“I think she is phenomenal because she really has a heart for the community and especially for the (SAPS) members. She has already done an incredible job because she works with the community. She is always trying to better the working relationship between SAPS, all the organisations and the community as a whole. I just want to add that Colonel Vosloo is a very nice man, a great leader. He had an open door policy which helped a lot in strengthening relationships.”
Table View CPF chairperson, David Harris, said their relationship with the outgoing colonel was excellent and they had managed to form street committees.
“We are losing a commander that we worked well with and it was scary at first because we were going into the unknown. But I feel that we have hit the jackpot by getting Colonel Dyantyi and we couldn’t have asked for a better leader in her,” he said.
Mr Harris said every organisation plays a critical role in community safety. “Whether it be the neighbourhood watch, CPF, street committees, armed response companies, reservists or community medics, they are all part of this jigsaw and I must say, we do work well together.”
Colonel Dyantyi, said when she took over in November, she didn’t approach the job in an “acting” role because she was already playing the part of station commander. “I was worried if I would be able to maintain the incredible work that was started by Colonel Vosloo but looking back, I think I have a done good not to mess up what has been done. It was a bonus for me to get to a place where the partnerships are great and we are working together,” she said.
Colonel Dyantyi says she owes her success in such a small space of time to the commitment by her SAPS members and she always tries to lead by example.
