She turned the tables on a gangster who threatened to take her out.
She uses money from her own pocket to cook up three-course meals for impoverished school kids, and she finds shelter for the elderly who sleep outside.
Nothing Bridgette Truter does is “regular”.
The Patriotic Alliance candidate for Ocean View even adds a comical element to her election campaigning in a gevaarlike groen wig to match her party’s colours.
“It’s how to get to ground level with people”, the Grade 3 teacher explains.
The 55-year-old is open and honest about her drug-addicted son and says she ‘has nothing to hide’.
“People will know I have first-hand experience and can feel it with them,” she says.
Being nominated as candidate for Ward 61 / Ocean View came as a surprise to the mom.
“I don’t promise my constituency anything, but when I’m speaking at council I will speak for them,” said the victim of forced removals in Noordhoek in the 1960s.
Also a ex-police reservist of many years, a gangster recently threatened “to take her out”.
But Bridgette didn’t skrik for the boef.
“Look in my face,” she said to him. “If you want to take me out, don’t do it behind my back”.
She adds: “They say a dog gets its day. This pig got its weekend.”
The gangster landed up behind bars for five days.
Bridgette is ready to roll up her sleeves and start working in the largely-unemployed, gang and drug-infested Ocean View.
Also a member of the Community Police Forum, she believes “standing together can make a positive change”.
Bridgette teaches at Kleinberg Primary school, and her “children’s” well-being means everything to her.
Every Christmas, she cooks up meals and provides gifts and a party pack for each of them.
As coach of Kleinberg Primary volleyball team, she also bought a brand new R200 000 Kia truck to cart them around in.
Her efforts clearly paid off as the team will represent Western Province in Durban later this month.
“We are the poorest of the poor, struggling with dysfunctional homes and this is a big achievement for parents to see their kids moving up in life,” she says proudly.
She also has a weak spot for the poor and destitute, like an elderly woman who lives opposite her house.
“She slept under the stars on a foam mattress with a piece of plastic over her every night. We found poles, planks, sheets and got a donated Wendy house. She’s warm now,” says a satisfied Bridgette.