Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
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| Title: | Whistles and Sjamboks: Crime and Policing in Soweto, 1960-1976 |
| Author: | Glaser, Clive |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | South African Historical Journal |
| Issue: | 52 |
| Pages: | 119-139 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | crime prevention vigilante groups police townships apartheid Urbanization and Migration Law, Human Rights and Violence Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations History and Exploration Politics and Government |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470509464867 |
| Abstract: | The crime problem in South Africa grew steadily throughout the 1950s, levelled off to an extent around 1960-1961, and then continued to escalate throughout the remainder of the 1960s and early 1970s. This paper focuses on the situation in Soweto, one of Johannesburg's townships. In the apartheid era, the South African Police (SAP) was far more an instrument of political control than civil policing. The central government and the SAP believed that influx control could be used as an instrument to control crime. However, not only were apartheid policies ineffective in dealing with township crime, they even deepened the crime crisis. By late 1960 there were renewed demands for civil guards from township residents and, despite its illegality and the hazardous nature of patrol duty, there was a spate of civil guard activity in Soweto throughout the 1960s. In the early 1970s the crime situation deteriorated even further, and in 1973 a number of local guards came together to form the Makgotla. From its inception, the Makgotla appealed to the government for legal recognition, but this was denied until 1978. By then, however, Makgotla support was dwindling. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
