The use of less-lethal weapons in South African prisons and crowd management

This monograph examines the use and misuse of less-lethal weapons (LLWs) within South African prisons and by the South African Police Service (SAPS) Public Order Police (POP) units during crowd management from 2013 to 2018. It analyzes the legal and regulatory frameworks of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and SAPS, highlighting systemic failures in accountability, the use of equipment as instruments of torture, and the lethal consequences of weapons marketed as 'less-lethal'.

• The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and SAPS Public Order Police (POP) extensively use less-lethal weapons (LLWs), but there is evidence of abuse in both environments. In prisons, the tonfa baton is the primary LLW, while electrified shields are also used. In crowd management, the SAPS relies heavily on rubber bullets, teargas, and stun grenades, alongside batons and water cannons.
• Electric shock shields in South African prisons have a long history of being used as instruments of torture. Evidence indicates they have been used in 'initiation rituals' for new inmates and in cases where prisoners were repeatedly shocked, sometimes while being wet with water to hide burn marks and avoid detection.
• The Emergency Support Team (EST), a DCS reaction unit, is frequently implicated in mass assaults and the abuse of inmates, particularly during large-scale searches. There are concerns that the EST may carry out collective punishment, and reports indicate they often operate without the required presence of the head of the prison.
• In crowd management, conventional ammunition—specifically the R5 automatic rifle—is responsible for the majority of deaths, despite the R5 not being listed in the SAPS national instruction for crowd management equipment. IPID data from April 2014 to March 2019 shows that 92% (44 out of 48) of deaths during crowd incidents were caused by a police 'service firearm'.
• Kinetic impact projectiles (rubber bullets) have caused fatalities and severe injuries in both prisons and crowd management when fired at close range. In one prison incident at St Albans in December 2016, an autopsy confirmed a death where a piece of plastic from a projectile was lodged in the inmate's face, suggesting a close-range shot.
• The SAPS has procured 40 long-range acoustic devices (LRADs) between 2014 and 2018. While officially described as communication tools, internal SAPS references identify them as 'non-lethal interventions' intended to disrupt balance through frequency, indicating they are envisaged as weapons.
• The regulatory framework for the DCS is more detailed than that of the SAPS POP, but both fail to recognize the indiscriminate nature of certain LLWs. Neither framework distinguishes between 'discriminate' and 'indiscriminate' weapons, such as stun grenades or teargas, which affect all persons in the vicinity.
• Accountability for the misuse of force is limited. JICS investigations in prisons are not criminal and cannot bind the DCS to remedial action. In crowd management, IPID faces resource constraints and difficulties in identifying specific officers responsible for violations, often resulting in acquittals even when video evidence exists.
• At the G4S private prison in Mangaung, there are extensive allegations of routine assaults, electroshocking, and the unauthorized use of antipsychotic drugs as a tool for managing 'difficult' inmates, sometimes involving forced injections by EST members.
• South Africa ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) on 20 June 2019. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will coordinate the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), which is tasked with inspecting places of detention to prevent torture and ill-treatment.

APA

Bruce, D. (2019). The use of less-lethal weapons in South African prisons and crowd management. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono-201.pdf

Chicago

Bruce, David. The use of less-lethal weapons in South African prisons and crowd management. Institute for Security Studies, 2019. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono-201.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bruce |first1=David |title=The use of less-lethal weapons in South African prisons and crowd management |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=November 2019 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono-201.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bruce2019use, author = {Bruce, David}, title = {{The use of less-lethal weapons in South African prisons and crowd management}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/mono-201.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }