When the case of a man who escaped from a North West prison in 2010 while serving an eight-year sentence remained unsolved and was later relegated to the cold case unit, it took Sgt Morongwa Koboekae a few days to find the prisoner. When Koboekae traced the man, he was serving a life sentence at Upington Prison in the Northern Cape for a rape and murder committed shortly after escaping from Rooigrond Prison in Mahikeng. For the Gauteng-born detective, tracing criminals is more than a job, it is a calling she followed with conviction in 2011 when she joined the SA Police Service (SAPS).
It was meticulous work days of matching data, revisiting old evidence and verifying identities. “I grew up wanting to be the type of police officer who solves cases. “I wanted to protect people and I knew investigations were my strength.” For 13 years, Koboekae built a solid reputation in Gauteng as a specialist in tracing wanted suspects, from fraudsters and rapists to housebreaking syndicates.
She worked with fingerprints, DNA and national databases, quietly becoming one of the detectives who cracked cases that seemed impossible. Three months ago, Koboekae, who spent her entire policing career in Gauteng, relocated to Mahikeng to be closer to her family. Shortly after settling in, she was given the Mahikeng police station’s wanted list and the SAPS national wanted list.
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Police had been looking for them for years without breakthroughs and Koboekae got to work immediately. Using her forensic tracing skills, she started cross-checking old fingerprints, DNA hits and archived case files with the profiles of prisoners in correctional centres across the country.
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