MELITA Maleka now realises how lucky she is to be alive.
Yesterday, the Johannesburg Metro cop spoke about how anger spurred her into action when a thug attacked her.
"For those three minutes I fought him off, there was no fear. I was just angry," said Maleka at her home in Glenridge, Joburg.
She told Sowetan how she was disarmed where she was manning a speed camera just before 11am.
Maleka and four colleagues arrived at the spot at about 7am on Roodepoort Road, between Braam Fischer Extension Two and Main Reef Road.
They set up a speed camera, facing traffic coming south with their backs to the long grass.
"At about 10.50am, my colleague said she was thirsty, so she left to get water from our car parked across the road," she said.
"I felt a man pouncing on me and he pushed me to the ground. He went for my gun. I fought back," she said.
"But he managed to take my gun which was loaded. He did not say a word. He was pointing the gun at me," Maleka said.
"I then grabbed his leg and screamed for help. My colleagues could not run quickly to my rescue as there was a heavy traffic flow.
"I held on to his leg for those three minutes until I was tired. I lost my grip. He stood up and ran into the long grass, leaving his sandal with me," said Maleka.
"It never crossed my mind that he could have shot me. I was so angry that this thug had taken my gun."
Maleka was later treated for shock at Tshepo-Themba Hospital in Dobsonville, Soweto.
Johannesburg Metro Police Department's spokesperson Edna Mamonyane said such attacks were rare with less than 10 reported in the last few years.