page_title: South African Police
section_title: Upholding apartheid
hierarchical_section_title: South African Police / Upholding apartheid
caption_attribution_description: English: Caspir at the South African Police Museum, Pretoria.Initially the Caspir was camouflaged in matt green and brown. (During the “bush war” period). Later the yellow version was used for suburban use.
context_page_description: The South African Police was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the de facto police force in the territory of South West Africa from 1939 to 1981. After South Africa's transition to majority rule in 1994, the SAP was reorganised into the South African Police Service.
context_section_description: During South Africa's rule under apartheid, the SAP operated to quell civil unrest amongst the country's disenfranchised non-white majority. During emergencies they were assisted by the military. Beyond the conventional police functions of upholding order and solving crime, the SAP employed counter-insurgency and intimidation tactics against anti-apartheid activists and critics of the white minority government. From 1961 to 1990, a total of 67 people died in South African Police detention from hanging and torture as well as natural causes as claimed by the Police.
caption: The Casspir, an armoured personnel carrier used by the SAP.
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