Crowd Control. Can Our Public Order Police Still Deliver?

This research paper examines the evolution of public order policing in South Africa, tracing the transition from the repressive Internal Stability Division of the apartheid era to the current Area Crime Combating Units (ACCUs). The author questions whether the shift in focus toward general crime prevention has eroded the specialized capacity of the police to manage volatile crowd situations and service delivery protests.

• Public order policing in South Africa transitioned from the apartheid-era Internal Stability Division (ISD), which focused on "the enforcement of apartheid laws, the suppression of political unrest and the prevention of unrest, intimidation and unrest-related crimes", to a service-oriented model after 1994.
• Following the 1994 transition, the public order component was restructured, which included reducing its size from 10,000 to 7,000 members and implementing a retraining process to move away from "repressive methods of policing".
• In 2002, the South African Police Service (SAPS) introduced Standing Order 262 on Crowd Management during Gatherings and Demonstrations to ensure crowd management aligns with "democratic principles of the Constitution and acceptable international standards".
• Public order units were transformed into Area Crime Combating Units (ACCUs) starting around 2001, shifting their primary mandate from crowd management to "intelligence-driven operations that require high force levels" to combat serious crimes such as bank robberies and vehicle hijackings.
• The ACCUs are decentralized to the area level for day-to-day operations, while the provincial level handles policy and standards, and the national level provides "national strategic direction to maintain public order".
• There are concerns that the focus on crime prevention has led to a neglect of crowd management skills, potentially resulting in fatalities during volatile events. Examples cited include the 2002 Ellis Park soccer disaster, where 43 people died, and a 2005 protest in Harrismith where a 17-year-old boy was killed.
• The author notes a resurgence in public protests driven by poverty and "community dissatisfaction over municipal service delivery", specifically regarding shortages of water, electricity, sanitation, and housing, which challenges the current capacity of the ACCUs.

APA

Omar, B. (2006). Crowd Control. Can Our Public Order Police Still Deliver? Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.org/topics/crime-and-criminal-justice/01-mar-2006-crowd-control.-can-our-public-order-police-still-deliver-bilkis-omar

Chicago

Omar, Bilkis. Crowd Control. Can Our Public Order Police Still Deliver? Institute for Security Studies, 2006. https://issafrica.org/topics/crime-and-criminal-justice/01-mar-2006-crowd-control.-can-our-public-order-police-still-deliver-bilkis-omar.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Omar |first1=Bilkis |title=Crowd Control. Can Our Public Order Police Still Deliver? |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=1 March 2006 |url=https://issafrica.org/topics/crime-and-criminal-justice/01-mar-2006-crowd-control.-can-our-public-order-police-still-deliver-bilkis-omar |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{omar2006crowd, author = {Omar, Bilkis}, title = {{Crowd Control. Can Our Public Order Police Still Deliver?}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2006}, month = mar, url = {https://issafrica.org/topics/crime-and-criminal-justice/01-mar-2006-crowd-control.-can-our-public-order-police-still-deliver-bilkis-omar}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }