History of the South African Police
(PRE-1994)
History
Early History
The South African Police traces its origin to the Burgher Watch, also known as Burgher Wardmasters or Wijkmeesters (Dutch) as pointed out in an old Nongqai article, dated August 1938 – titled “FROM RATTLE WATCH TO BATONS“.
These forerunners of the modern-day SA Police were appointed as Wardmasters about the year 1790. In 1795 British officials assumed control over the Burgher Watch and in 1825 they organised the Cape Constabulary, which became the Cape Town Police Force in 1840.
In 1854 a police force was established in Durban which would become the Durban Borough Police and in 1935 the Durban City Police (DCP). Act 3 of 1855 established the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police Force in the Eastern Cape, restyled as the Cape Mounted Riflemen in 1878.
In 1873 the Hlubi tribe under Chief Langalibalele who lived among the foothills of the Drakensberg under the shadow of the mighty Champagne Castle and Cathkin Peak, came into conflict with the Natal Government.
After the rebellion the Government instituted the Natal Mounted Police, a mixed force of Whites and non-Whites known to the Zulus as the Nongqai. Click here for more info.
Fort Nongqai, Eshowe: Zululand
Image sourced from The National Archives UK [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons
The Mounted Police of Natal
Published 1913 by John Murray in London.
Open Library OL24348143M
Internet Archive
A research article titled, “The Irish in South Africa – The Police, A Case Study,” compiled by Donal P. McCracken, University of Durban-Westville, provides an enlightening portrayal of nineteenth-century South Africa and Irish police regiments who policed the various territories in those bygone days.
A finger printing office was established in Pietermaritzburg in 1900, a year before Britain’s Scotland Yard followed suit. Fingerprints in possession of the SA Police Criminal Record Centre prove that fingerprints were already being taken in the Transvaal in the year 1900. By 1925 several offices had mushroomed, necessitating the creation of the South African Criminal Bureau. This organisation employed experts on firearms, fingerprints, handwriting, photography and medicine and in 1954 developed its own compound for lifting fingerprints from objects. It was also the first in the world to use colour photography for police purposes and kept a record of every convicted criminal in the country.
Influencers of the Second Anglo Boere-War
Prior to the Second Anglo-Boer War (October 1899 to May 1902) each colony or Boer republic had its own law enforcement organisation. With the outbreak of the war in 1899 the Transvaal and Orange Free State police forces were called to active service in the Boer army, while the Cape Mounted Riflemen and Mounted Police, and the Natal Mounted Police were called to support the British.
In September 1900 Lord Roberts, commander-in-chief of the British forces, ordered Major General Baden-Powell develop a scheme for a Constabulary Force in the Transvaal and Orange Free State (OFS) that could begin to function in 1901, as he expected the war to be over by then. The police force would be divided into 4 divisions, 3 for the Transvaal and 1 for the OFS, but would not be responsible for everyday policing, as they would be taking part in the conflict.
At the cessation of hostilities, the Johannesburg and Pretoria areas were under the jurisdiction of the Transvaal Town Police, with the South African Constabulary (SAC) responsible for rural areas.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
The Union of South Africa
The various colonial police forces, such as the Cape Mounted Riflemen, Cape Mounted Police, the Transvaal Police, the Natal Police, the Orange River Colony Police, as well as several urban police forces, continued to exist independently even after the establishment of the Union on 31 May 1910. The first Union Government intended the early establishment of a national police force. In August 1910 a conference of the commissioners of police of the four provinces was held under the chairmanship of Mr E F Lonsdale who, for a number of years, was Secretary to the Law Department of the Cape Colony.
At the conclusion of the deliberations at this conference a draft Police Bill, based more or less on the Transvaal Police Act, 1908 (No 5 of 1908), as well as police regulations, was drawn up for consideration during the 1911 Parliamentary session. Another important step forward was the appointment by the Government on 15 October 1910 of the then Commissioner of the Transvaal Police, Colonel TG (later Sir Theodore) Truter, as Chief Commissioner of the police forces of the four provinces.
Simultaneously two deputy commissioners were appointed: Lieutenant-Colonel HC Bredell for the uniform branch and Lieutenant-Colonel TE Mavrogordato for the detective branch. The respective forces retained their own commissioners, who were responsible to Colonel Truter. In 1911 Colonel Truter was also appointed accounting officer of all four police forces and thereby central financial control over the police forces was established.
By the end of 1911 the police force was being restructured and divided into 2 forces namely the South African Police (SAP) and the South African Mounted Riflemen (SAMR). The first group would function normally under the Police Act, as police officers, and in war they would be conscripted according to the Defence Act, while the SAMR would be a regular military force with police duties during times of peace.
There were to be five regiments of the SAMR. The first regiment consisted of the former Cape Mounted Riflemen and was intended to serve the Transkei and part of the Eastern Cape. The second and third regiments were composed of the Natal Police and some men who had served in the Orange Free State. The fourth regiment was composed of men of the Transvaal Police from the districts of Marico, Rustenburg, Waterberg, Zoutpansberg, Lydenburg and Barberton. The fifth regiment was composed of the Cape Mounted Police who had previously served in the districts of Gordonia, Namaqualand and Griqualand West.
All remaining members of the pre-Union police forces (with the exception of the members of the Borough Police of Durban and Pietermaritzburg) who were not absorbed into the South African Mounted Riflemen, were assigned to the South African Police on condition that they accepted, in writing, the new service conditions. Out of the total of approximately 9 500 men, only 95 refused to serve either in the South African Police or the South African Mounted Riflemen.
During the Parliamentary session of 1911 General J B M Hertzog, the Minister of Justice, took the Police Bill to its second reading. It was then purposely held over to the following year because of its close connection with the Defence Bill, which was not yet ready for introduction.
In the course of the following year the Defence Act, No.13 of 1912, (and the Police Act, No.14 of 1912), were adopted by Parliament.
Section 2 of the Police act provided, inter alia:
…”There shall be established, as from a date to be fixed by the Governor-General by proclamation in the Gazette, not being earlier than the thirty-first day of January, 1913, a police force entitled the South African Police and composed of:
(a) such persons as may be enrolled as members of the force in terms of this Act on or subsequent to the date…”
By Proclamation 18 of 1913, 1 April was stipulated as the date of establishment of the South African Police, The proclamation was signed on 30 January 1913 by the Governor-General, Lord Gladstone, and by the Minister of Justice, Mr JW Sauer.
Colonel TG Truter was appointed as the first Commissioner of the South African Police, He was assisted at Headquarters by Deputy Commissioner (Lieut-Col) HC Bredell (later Secretary of the South African Police), Deputy Commissioner (Lieut-Col) TE Mavrogordato (Detective Branch), Inspector (Capt) MC Fitzgibbon and Sub-Inspector (Lieut) SL Lendrum.
Col Truter’s 18 years as Commissioner of Police was characterized by numerous turbulent events. Not only were there internal problems in the SAP but also external factors that wielded extreme burdens on police resources. A few of these were:
- The 1913 miners’ strike on the Witwatersrand.
- The industrial strike of 1914.
- The violence of the infamous Foster gang during 1914.
- The First World War from 1914 to 1918.
- The death of Gen JH de la Rey and the Maritz Rebellion (or Boer Revolt) that followed during 1914 to 1915.
- The Police Strike on 2 November 1917.
- Numerous riots and revolts, such as those in Port Elizabeth in 1920, the Bulhoek revolt in 1921 and the miners’ strike on the Witwatersrand in 1922 – known as the Rand Rebellion or the Red Revolt which left 200 people dead, including many policemen and more than 1000 injured.
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