Cressida Dick is probably a name many South Africans won't readily recognise. She was, until this week, head of London’s Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest police force and the first woman to hold the position in the force’s almost 200-year history.

Appointed to a five-year term in 2017, which was extended by a further two years in September last year, Dick dramatically resigned — was pushed out — after a falling out with London mayor Sadiq Khan following a series of scandals ascribed to her alleged failure of leadership...