Police Militarisation and the ‘War on Crime’ in South Africa

In recent years, there has been a revival in scholarly interest in police militarisation. However, the debates about the impact of this phenomenon on society and governance have been mostly normative, and there have been very few case studies from other countries published to date. Consequently, this article seeks to contribute to knowledge on police militarisation by means of an analysis of police work in a lower- to middle-income democracy, namely South Africa. It considers the factors that have perpetuated and accelerated police militarisation in the country. After a review of existing literature on police militarisation, the historical and contemporary determinants of this phenomenon in South Africa are analysed, based on publicly available data and sources with a particular focus on high-density police operations. Findings indicate that, despite demilitarisation efforts in the 1990s, the South African Police Service has remained a militarised organisation. This has been due to militaristic policing traditions, the hierarchical institutional nature of the police, and the persistent ‘war on crime’ discourse of the South African political leadership.