ABERDEEN NEWS - Captain Barend (Bennie) Smit has been appointed as the new station commander for Aberdeen SAPS, and started his duties on 1 June.

Smit is originally from Kimberley and joined SAPS in 1994 after serving in the military police for a year. He trained in Cape Town, and after a year working in the city, he transferred to what was then the riot unit in Port Elizabeth for eight years.

He was promoted to sergeant in 1996, and inspector) in 2000.

When the riot unit was relaunched as Public Order Policing (POP) he opened the new unit in Aliwal North, where he served from 2003-2007.

He then spent two years in Cradock and moved to Graaff-Reinet in 2010. During his time in Graaff-Reinet, he worked throughout the cluster and often joined Aberdeen SAPS on operations. He enjoyed working in the area, and this led to him applying for the promotional post to station commander in the town.
He has been delighted with the positive attitude of the majority of people in the town to this police. 

"When I have been on foot patrol, many people have come to introduce themselves and welcome me," he said, adding that he needs to get to know all sections of the community. He acknowledges that this is a difficult time to take over command, with special regulations in place because of Covid-19. 

During his first week, he was called on to help at the roadblock where his calm and reasonable manner diffused what was becoming a very volatile situation.

"Capt Smit joins Aberdeen SAPS at the most challenging time but we trust that as a seasoned policeman he will hit the ground running," said Graaff Reinet Cluster Commander, Brigadier Rudolph Adolph, as he welcomed Capt Smit. "We wish him well and commit to support him in his endeavours to fight crime in Aberdeen."

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