Top traffic graduate to make our roads safer in Vredenburg

The Gene Louw Traffic College (GLTC) Top Achiever trophy for 2022 has been awarded to 26-year-old Zikhona Mazizi from Vredenburg. She was one of 99 provincial and municipal traffic officers who received the Further Education and Training Certificate: Road Traffic Law Enforcement at a graduation ceremony in Brackenfell on 9 December 2022.

The excitement was palpable as the programme director called Officer Mazizi’s name. She was recognised for excellence in four categories:

• Academics,
• Musketry,
• Transportation Unit Standards (Loads, Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO), Dangerous Goods, National Land Transport Act (NLTA)), and
• National Road Transport Act (NRTA).

Officer Mazizi was proudest of her achievement in firearm training (Musketry). For her, this overcame any doubt that she was both the top female officer, and the top achiever overall.

“Being a woman receiving this type of award means a lot to me, it shifted my mentality, and it filled me with joy,” said Officer Mazizi.

“I won’t say it was easy throughout the year. It was difficult. There were days when I couldn’t sleep, there were days when I slept in tears, but I did not want to lose my dream.”

Her tenacity and resilience are evident in her determination to be admitted to GLTC after initially being declined.

“After passing my matric in 2013, I dreamed of being a traffic officer, I wanted to be in the enforcement industry but unfortunately I fell short of the requirements,” she said.

“In 2015, I lost my brother in a road accident. That accident made me realise that this career is what I really want. I want people to be safe on the roads.”

Officer Mazizi has always been concerned with law and order, and a career in enforcement could be described as her vocation. She admired how other traffic officers performed their duties, and knew that this was what she wanted to do.

“I wanted to become a traffic officer from a young age, I could feel it in my blood. It turns out I liked enforcing rules, following the rules, following the regulations, and I am disciplined”.

Officer Mazizi will be stationed in Vredenburg.