MOSSEL BAY NEWS - "The hotspots must feel us and when we leave, people will know we were there from the dust our boots leave behind."

These were the words of Da Gamaskop Police Station's new commander, Colonel Thembisile Xoliswa Senaya, who officially began her duties on Wednesday 1 April.

Senaya spoke to Mossel Bay Advertiser about her work as a police officer over the last 22 years, her plans as the new head of the Da Gamaskop Policing Precinct and what she likes to do in her down time.

Born and raised in Umlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, Senaya said she was still a teenager in the late 1980s when she realised she wanted to be a police officer. This realisation came thanks to a well-known officer who lived in her area. She said the man was well known and respected in the community for the work he did and the people he helped, and she wanted to be like him.

After applying for a position within the South African Police Service (Saps) multiple times in Kwa-Zulu-Natal without any success, she moved to Cape Town in 2002 where she spent time focusing on art and found work as a cashier at a store. 

It was during this time that she saw a call for people to join the service, and after her application was accepted, she trained at the Saps Academy Bisho College in the Eastern Cape.

In 2004, she officially became a police constable and started working in the crime prevention unit at the Khayelitsha Police Station. She transferred to various other stations around Cape Town, working within visible policing and the forensic services department, climbing the ranks due to her hard work and dedication.

In 2024, she was asked to be the Samora Machel Police Station's commander. This was when the station was 12th highest in the province for murder.

"When I served there, there were a lot of challenges and a lot of murders. It often felt as if our job was just picking up bodies. I came up with a strategy that we would be the task force of Samora Machel ourselves, and we had our boots on the ground. I went out with the team."

Senaya said this worked, and by the end of the year, the statistics spoke to the hard work. In the third quarter period, October to December 2025, the Samora Machel Police were no longer picking up bodies like before, and contact crime had decreased.

She said she had applied for the position at Da Gamaskop and was excited when she found out she had been accepted. She moved to Mossel Bay with her family.

Now that she is the station commander of Da Gamaskop, she has many plans to increase visible policing, restore the community's trust in the officers, and re-energise the officers working at the station. 

"Da Gamaskop is different in terms of the crime and resources. I have mostly worked in stations within high-crime areas, so I feel I can handle a lot. When crime is low, people forget about the police, but we are still here and we are still working. I want there to be more police visibility in the precinct, I want more stop-and-searches conducted, I want the community to feel our presence and to build trust with them," she said.

Senaya said she wants to hold community imbizos and engage with the people. "I want the community to make use of us and to know that we are here to deliver services. I am here to revive the public's trust and the police officers' dignity."

She added that she also has plans to promote unity among the police members and to help them love their work again. "If you heal on the inside, the outside will be 100%," she said.

As a lover of exercise, Senaya also has plans to start aerobics classes at the station, and members of the community will be invited to join in.

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