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:
“Only let the North exert as much moral influence over the South, as the South has exerted demoralizing influence over the North, and slavery would die amid the flame of Christian remonstrance, and faithful rebuke, and holy indignation.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Now, honestly: if a large group of ... demonstrators blocked the entrances to St. Patrick’s Cathedral every Sunday for years, making it impossible for worshipers to get inside the church without someone escorting them through screaming crowds, wouldn’t some judge rule that those protesters could keep protesting, but behind police lines and out of the doorways?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)