Public order policing in South Africa - What about history?

Elrena van der SpuyCentre of Criminology, UCT

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The virtues of comparison – space and time?

Cross-cultural studies have much to contribute

Historical enquiries can capture continuities, shifts, nuances in public order policing

Public order policing in SA in historical perspective

Academic writings

Police writings

Interviews with old guard

Apartheid’s riot police –Orthodox Views

• Highly politicised

• Distinct in its paramilitary

ethos and practices

• Uniformly brutal and inherently racist

• Zero tolerance model of public order policing – dictatorial, inflexible and repressive

Apartheid’s Riot Police: Revisionist perspectives

Structural imperatives

Minority regime politics - Absence of a broader social contract

A hostile state – A disenchanted people- fierce political battle

Normative imperatives

A culture of antipathy and violence -- Permissive legal regime - the criminalisation of public protest

Social imperatives Partisan media reporting

Intensity of public (dis)order

South African exceptionalism?

The policing of public order under Apartheid not ‘idiosyncratic’ nor ‘exceptional’

A variation on a wider international theme

Integral part of a

post-colonial African

cocktail

Themes -------- Themes

Themes emerging from the

Interviews?

The metaphors of war

War and the shadow of counter-insurgency

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We tend to forget that it was winter. It was winter. Really. It was cold.

Ja, Rhodesie was baie belangrik. Daar het ons ons tande geslyp. Toe die grense. Toe

Ovamboland. Toe die townships. Bekamping van terrorisme. Vang van insypelaars. Hantering van

onlus-situasies.

Obedience to the law

. Wat sê die strafproseswet? Wat is die job van die polisie? Die handhawing van wet en order. Dis ons job. Dis nie asof ons ‘n keuse het nie. Ons moet uitgaan en

ons job doen. Die wet sê dan so.

Command, control and discipline

Commanders are of critical importance. Good commanders. Trained and experienced. A cool head. You can’t have Rambo and Chuck Norris around. Commanders need to exert control. They need to know what’s happening. They need to remove Piet if he is no longer coping. Commanders need to discipline.

I have always said you can’t drink with the lower ranks. How can you drink tonite and give orders tomorrow to the one’s you partied with?

Discretion and Decisions

Ek meen jy sit daar en die hel is los en jy moet ‘n besluit neem. Watter besluit neem jy en wanneer

gee jy die bevel? En onthou jy het sekondes om die besluit te

maak. Dis nie maklik nie.

Technology and resources

Jy moet toerusting hê. Ons kon Peleton 19 van ‘n duisend man binne drie ure tot enige plek in the land ontplooi. Gooi hulle in die vliegtuig of sit hulle op ‘n trein. So ‘n mobiele eenheid is handig. Dit kos geld. Jy het infrastruktuur nodig. Hulle moet slaap, stort en eet jy weet.

Toe kry ons video kameras. En ons neem alles op kamera op. Jy kan die belhamels identifiseer. Jy gebruik dit in opleiding. Jy kan dit in die hof gebruik as bewysstukke. Rolle en rolle film is geneem. Wat het daarvan geword?.

The vexed question: accountability

?Die Minister vra toe vir my: Is jy bang om in the hostels in te gaan?Ek sê: Nee Minister dis nou nie dat ek bang is nie. Maar die saak staan so: As ons daar ingaan gaan daar mense

wees wat seerkry, daar gaan bloed vloei. Dalk baie bloed.

Wat ek wil weet gaan jy pa staan vir die goed?

Being scared (just a little bit)

Jong, ek sal jou se^ as jy so ‘n handvol poliesmanne is en daar is duisende betogers dan is jy maar bang

hoor. En hulle is wild. En van daai poliesmanne is nog kinders. Skaars uit die

skool.

In Bisho was ek bang. Dit het rof gegaan. Rof.

Adaptations to new realities

Peace and the policing of unrest

Toe kom 1994. En toe loop van ons. En in hulle wysheid dink hulle ‘n duisend jaar van vryheid het aangebreek. En kyk nou hoe gaan dit. Daar is baie kundigheid oor onrus situasies. Ons kan help. Sommige van ons wil help waar ons kan.

Contemporary issues

• The political metaphors used• Veracity of the regulatory framework• Command, control and discipline• Engaging with discretion• Technology, resources and training• Accountability mechanisms• Resilience and fear behind the shields and inside the

uniforms• Flexibility to adapt• Learning from the past to engage the future

Thank You

Questions?