Though Sergeant Busisiwe Mjwara, the KwaZulu-Natal police diver who died in the call of duty, was exhausted, her altruistic nature would not allow her to leave desperate families in the lurch, and she paid the ultimate price for her bravery.
According to her colleagues who spoke to the Sunday World, the cries and the worries from families whose loved ones had been swept away in the deadly floods that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal a week ago gave Mjwara sleepless nights. She wanted to lend a hand at all costs.
The anxious families have resorted to camping on the edge of local rivers hoping to salvage the bodies of their relatives.
“Being a police officer was a calling for Busi. She felt duty bound to assist her fellow human beings. Every time we were out on a search and rescue mission, she refused to rest until the mission was completed. This time was no different,” her colleague Sergeant Cedric Duma said.
Duma added that due to the floods police resources were overstretched, especially the divers who were overwhelmed by reports of people reported to have been swept away.
He said fatigue was taking a heavy toll on the police divers, compounded by the bad weather and raging currents. The team of police divers suggested that the search should resume later in the afternoon. Mjwara insisted on going on.
“Busi was more worried about the families who were desperately searching for relatives.
“There were several call-outs from families who wanted to be assisted in their search for their relatives who had either drowned or were swept away,” said Duma.
The 42-year-old mother of two from Thornville, Pietermaritzburg, took her last breath on Sunday at about 11.30am in the Msunduzi River, where she and her colleagues were searching for three drowning victims. She met her untimely death in the same waters where she had saved many lives, before an angry current washed her away.
Her companion, a police service dog known as Leah, jumped in to rescue her but also fell victim to the raging waters.
Ex-cop Simon Langa, who worked for several years with Mjwara, becoming close friends in the process, said she wanted to inculcate a culture of selflessness among her colleagues. He said Mjwara shattered the stereotype that women should not go into the water.
“Despite the fact that I was no longer in the police service, we often had long conversations. She knew and had accepted that as a diver, one always stares death in the eye. There are not too many women divers because diving is a separate specialty within the police service. Busi took on the challenge,” said Langa.
Back home in Thornville, a few kilometres outside the province’s capital city, her family is inconsolable. More unbearable for the Mjwaras are the two children aged three and six that she left behind. They will grow up without their mother.
Sergeant Mjwara, who was attached to the Pietermaritzburg Search and Rescue Police Diving Unit, was yesterday given a state funeral in recognition of her heroism in line of duty.
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