MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The KwaNonqaba Police Station's social crime prevention officer, gender-based violence co-ordinator and victim-friendly room co-ordinator, Sergeant Salomé Marais, is a living example of the phrase "you strike a woman, you strike a rock".

Marais, who was born and grew up in Mossel Bay, has been in the police service for 14 years now and started her career when she was 28. Her husband had just died, leaving her a single mother to a six-year-old and 10-month-old.

She had worked as a shop manager in town, but following her husband's death, she began thinking about becoming an officer in order to provide better for her children.

After applying and being accepted to the Police Training College in Cape Town, Marais was off. She said it was extremely tough dealing with the loss of her husband and being away from her children during her training, but she knew it was something she had to do.

After college, she received permanent placement at the Heidelberg Police Station. This is where she realised that joining the police service had not only been the right thing to do for her family, but it was work she was passionate about.

During the 11 years Marais worked in Heidelberg, she was permanently reunited with her children, and met her current husband. The pair have been together for nine years and together have six children.

However, Marais missed her home and her family and asked for a transfer back to the Mossel Bay area. She was moved to Herbertsdale, which has a satellite police station.

"While I was in Herbertsdale, I met many people who had very little, but were so humble and satisfied with what they did have," she said. 

"I saw that there was a need in some people's lives as well, that many did not have access to the correct information or knowledge of what to do, where to go or how to be helped in various situations regarding the law, their safety, their health and so on. This really triggered my heart."

When the position of social crime prevention officer opened at KwaNonqaba a little while later, Marais immediately applied, knowing that although she did not have much experience in this area, it was something she felt passionate about and she knew she would be perfect for the position.

"I was appointed, and at first I was nervous, but my colleague, Warrant Officer Kappie Kapp, guided me through everything. I overcame my stage fright, and the rest is history."

She said the biggest challenges she faces are when people, especially women and children, come to the station's victim-friendly room for help and guidance and need a safe house or a shelter. Marais said there aren't many in Mossel Bay. 

"There was one situation in which a woman and her two children, a son of about 11 and a daughter of about four, needed a safe place to stay, but the shelter we found would not take them in because her son was older than 10."

Marais said she and some of her colleagues gave this small family food that they gathered from their own lunchboxes that day, and she was eventually able to organise with the Department of Social Development to find them a place to stay.

Marais's message to women: "Women are strong beings. You strike a woman, you strike a rock. Women can take so much and still come out on top.

"We women should be there for one another and straighten one another's crowns without gossiping about it." 

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