The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the de facto police force in the territory of South-West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981.
During South Africa's rule under apartheid, the SAP operated in close conjunction with South Africa's military to quell civil unrest amongst the country's disenfranchised black majority. Beyond the conventional police functions of upholding order and solving crime, the SAP employed counter-insurgency and intimidation tactics against black activists and critics of the white minority government.
The SAP was responsible for numerous human rights abuses against black South Africans, including acts of state terrorism and murder. After South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, the SAP was reorganized into the South African Police Service.
Famous quotes containing the words south, african and/or police:
“While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“The sacrifice to Legba was completed; the Master of the Crossroads had taken the loas’ mysterious routes back to his native Guinea.
Meanwhile, the feast continued. The peasants were forgetting their misery: dance and alcohol numbed them, carrying away their shipwrecked conscience in the unreal and shady regions where the savage madness of the African gods lay waiting.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
“He took control of me for forty-five minutes. This time I’ll have control over him for the rest of his life. If he gets out fifteen years from now, I’ll know. I’ll check on him every three months through police computers. If he makes one mistake he’s going down again. I’ll make sure. I’m his worst enemy now.”
—Elizabeth Wilson, U.S. crime victim. As quoted in People magazine, p. 88 (May 31, 1993)