Torture in South Africa has a complex and troubling history rooted in colonial and apartheid practices, where torture was used frequently by state security forces to suppress dissent and control Black and marginalised communities. Despite legal reforms during the post-apartheid…
This paper analyses political violence in 1990, touching on its definition, costs, role of youth and 'third force' arguments.
This paper seeks to introduce the idea of forming alternative defence structures in the wake of the violence unleashed against citizens by security forces, vigilante groups and hit squads in the 1990s.
The focus of this paper is state violence. It is argued that South African state security strategy in the period 1984-1988 was characterised by an increasing violence which was sanctioned by law. This violence was either inscribed in the law or unrestrained by the law. It is mainly directed against anti-apartheid activists both within and without South Africa's borders.
In August 1986, JGJ van Vuuren, chief executive of Armscor, when interviewed about his upbringing and the background to his involvement in the armaments industry in South Africa, commented: My childhood was one of clay-pellet fights with the coloured boys and growing up with my parents' interests' (Finansies en Tegniek, 12.9.1986). This quotation provides an apt introduction to this chapter, which attempts to map out briefly the integration of the political and economic features of the developing armaments industry in South Africa.