Doctoral Degrees (History)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (History) by Author "Buys, Jane Elize"
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Item Open Access The transformation of the South African Police from a paramilitary force to a service delivery agency 1980-1998: a historical assessment(University of the Free State, 2007-11) Buys, Jane Elize; Barnard, S. L.English: The focus of the study falls on the transformation of the South African Police Force from a paramilitary organization to that of a service delivery agency. The history of the Police Force prior to 1990 was that of a paramilitary force, thus autocratic and bureaucratic of nature with a strong military discipline. The Police Force was seen by the majority of the black population as an instrument to enforce the apartheid policy of the National Party government, and was thus branded as the enforcer of the apartheid policy. The black population in South Africa was mobilized by the banned organizations, namely the ANC, PAC, SACP and others to proceed with the liberation struggle to obtain political power. Through mobilization and indoctrination to make the country ungovernable and to eventually obtain political power, the banned liberation organizations came into direct conflict and confrontation with the Police Force that had to guarantee the safety of the state at all costs. The Police Force was also seen by the majority of the black population as not accountable to the communities and only to the government of the day. The Police Force, its top structure and the average police official were of the opinion that in the era of 1960 to 1990, the Police Force acted on behalf of the state and not to protect the party that governed. With the militarization of the South African society during the 1970s with the establishment of the State Security Council (SSC) to combat the total onslaught by terrorists and communists on every facet of society, the Police Force acted more military. The Police Force increasingly and continuously worked together with the South African Defence Force (SADF) internally as well as externally, in border wars of the then Rhodesia and South West Africa. The co-operation with the SADF contributed to the Police Force becoming more military, especially when the type of training, weaponry, equipment and military operations are assessed. The states of emergency in South Africa during the 1980s also contributed to the Police Force being classified and characterized as more military in certain cases than the paramilitary. With the advent of 1990, the release of Nelson Mandela, the era of negotiations between the National Party government and the previous banned liberation organizations, of which the ANC was the most important, the South African society was placed on an irreversable path of transformation. All government departments, including the Police Force, had to be transformed. The Police Force, as it stood at the evening of 1990, was not acceptable to the majority of the black population. The ANC as main negotiator wanted to transform the Police Force to a demilitarized, impartial, representative and accountable Police Force in South Africa, with the emphasis on effective service delivery to all communities. The Police Force should thus transform from a paramilitary institution to that of a service delivery agency for all South Africans. Two components of the Police Force that needed urgent transformation were the Security Branch and the Riot Control Units. These two components were contaminated by the role that they played to maintain the security situation in South Africa, thus to protect the state. Transformation and restructuring of the Police Force effectuated that more focus should be placed on preventing crime and the establishment of a human rights culture in a new democracy. These changes were stipulated in the Constitution and the new South African Police Service Act of 1995. The new South African Police Service Act finally broke with the past by changing the name of the Police Force to that of the Police Service. Where the Police Force was centralized, the Police Service was decentralized to provincial, area and station level. A new rank structure, uniform and insignia for the Police Service were instituted to demilitarize the Police. The amalgamation of the former TBVC states’ police forces and the incorporation of the freedom fighters, namely MK and APLA members, into the new South African Police Service, had to take place with transformation. The emphasis of the new Police Service was on community policing and crime prevention. Where the Police Force focussed on reactive policing, thus the investigation of crime, the Police Service had to focus on proactive policing, thus the prevention of crime. Community Police Forums (CPFs) were also established to ensure that the police would come into contact with the needs of their local communities and to deliver an effective service to them. To make the Police Service more acceptable and service delivery orientated, it had to become more representative of the population it had to serve. The focus thus, after democracy, was on equal conditions of employment of all races and genders and an affirmative action policy that was implemented in the Public Service to appoint previously disadvantaged persons in higher posts. With the implementation of affirmative action in the Police Service no effective training was presented to previously disadvantaged persons to become effective managers. This had a very big negative impact on service delivery to the communities that the Police Service had to serve. Problems that impacted on the ability of the Police Service to deliver an effective service in a democratic South Africa, were inter alia the increase in corruption among police officials, the morale, attitude and behaviour of police officials and the increase in stress, depression and suicides amongst police officials. The new Police Service had as one of its primary tasks the prevention of crime. The tremendous increase in crime levels in South Africa as reflected in the crime statistics of the Police Service, contributed to the perception that the Police Service could not combat crime alone and that it was continuously dependent on the co-operation of other government departments, such as the Department of Justice, the JCPS clusters and the Business Against Crime (BAC) initiatives.