The people's police‐force: communal policing initiatives in the Western areas of Johannesburg, circa 1930–62

Abstract

The Western Areas of Johannesburg was amongst the most important centres of population on the Rand, c. 1930–62. During these years, the area was increasingly plagued by violent crime. The South African Police (SAP) proved largely ineffective in countering such violence, leading residents to try and police the area themselves. A series of communal policing initiatives arose, receiving widespread support and were led by key radical leaders of the epoch, such as J.B. Marks and P.Q. Vundla. However, they were also bound up in divisions of class, generation, gender and ethnicity. Such initiatives received varying degrees of support and opposition from different sections of the white authorities. After clashes between ‘civic guards’ and the Sotho ‘Russians’ gang, the ‘civic guards’ were banned by the central government in 1952. However it would be a mistake to dismiss such communal policing initiatives as ‘just another gang’ — as the SAP did. Notwithstanding their tragic denouement, they represented one of the best supported movements of this era. Their outlawing by the central government suggests that the latter was more comfortable with high levels of township crime than with efforts by township residents to suppress it. Recent stress on the way crime may feed into resistance needs to beware passing over the baleful consequences of violent crime and to recognize the powerful critique of apartheid inherent in the people's police‐force.