Terrence Mhindurwa said that on the fateful day, he was meeting officers Sophie Ngoasheng and Winnie Mokgolo for the second time in just three days.
His first encounter with Ngoasheng, 45, and Mokgolo, 35, was at a roadblock on Main Road in Randburg on Saturday night.
Recalling last Monday night’s accident along Witkoppen Road in Paulshof, Mhindurwa said he was travelling with a friend and his girlfriend in a Hyundai i20. He was sitting behind the front passenger seat.
“We (were) stopped at a roadblock. I recognised the lady (Ngoasheng) who stopped us because she had stopped me with another colleague of hers on Saturday evening.
“She (Ngoasheng) recognised me too. I asked where Winnie was and she went to call her. They then came to the passenger side to talk to me. As we were talking, the driver I was with said ‘Watch!’ I just saw a white flash of a thing and the rest was history. I then blacked out,” Mhindurwa said.
He said that when he woke up, he saw the BMW that had been on the right side of their car was now on their left, lying on its side.
“I managed to get out of the car. I then realised that Winnie had passed. I was trying to make sure that my guys (had) got out of the car, but they were trapped. The fire brigade people came.
“We were having a friendly chat about how we were meeting again. That is why I was so devastated... that I called Winnie so that she could come here and what? Die?”
Mhindurwa was treated at hospital and discharged the same day. He said his friend’s girlfriend had suffered fractured ribs and a broken shoulder, among other injuries, and was still in hospital.
“They were friendly ladies, very professional and lovely,” Mhindurwa said.
He said he would have wanted to attend Mokgolo’s funeral, held at the Jerry Moloi Library in Etwatwa yesterday, but he had been too upset.
Ngoasheng, a mother of two, was buried in Limpopo on Saturday.
Two of the women’s colleagues, Jeanette Metsileng and Patricia Nukeri, were still in hospital.
At Mokgolo’s funeral, speakers hailed her as a determined, loving, kind and hardworking mother of three.
Her friend, Eunice Wati, said she was getting married in October and Mokgolo was to be her maid of honour.
“I was planning everything with her. She was like a sister to me. She always gave me guidance. I love you and will always love you. Rest in peace, my friend,” Wati said.
Joburg metro police department chief David Tembe said the two officers had paid the “ultimate price for serving the community”.
“What the cop does in the street counts. In honour of Winnie, we are going to do much to make sure that officers who honour the badge and serve the community with pride are rewarded. Winnie Mokgolo’s death will never be in vain,” said Tembe.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transport Joe Maswanganyi called for “harsher and severe penalties for all those who intentionally harm traffic officers”. “It is totally unacceptable that traffic officers, whose primary duty is to save lives, end up losing their own due to reckless and negligent drivers,” he said.
He also sent condolences to the family of traffic official Vincent Ngomane, who was killed after being knocked down by a car along the N4 near Schoemanskloof in Mpumalanga on Friday.
The Star