| Summary: | The study: "Evaluation of the re-introduced South African Police Service Railway
Police Unit in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality" reflects on the
significant developmental initiatives that have taken place in the rail environment as
a result of the re-introduction of the South African Police Service Railway Police Unit
(SAPSRPU). The research focused on the place and role of the SAPSRPU in the
context of crime combating and prevention in the railway network of the City of
Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM).
South Africa entered a new era of transformation and democracy in the 1990s. The
transformation of the security apparatus, in particular the South African Police (SAP),
was aimed at creating a pollce service that would build a safe and secure
environment for all the people in South Africa. The process of transformation in
South Africa, especially the integration of the various police forces from authoritarian
rule to a single integrated service, has been widely regarded as being successful
and a model for other processes of security in the reform sector. However, the task
of fulfilling the overall policing work has proved to be an overwhelming one, and
several challenges still remain for the improvement of safety and security
governance.
Up until 1986, law and order on the rail network in South Africa were provided by a
special railway police, commonly known as the South African Railways Police Force
(SARPF), which resorted under the control of the South African Transport Services
(SATS), as it was then known. The SARPF was disbanded in 1986, and its members
were integrated into the South African Police (SAP), which had a weird mandate and
various roles, as its focus was to sustain the apartheid machinery.
The consequences of the decision to disband the SARPF were to have a hugely
devastating effect on the rail commuters who were mainly black working class and
poor citizens. Criminals from various notorious urban hots pots migrated to the rail
environment; political violence also discovered a habitat in the rail commuter
environment. The insecure conditions that rail commuters experienced on a daily basis in the rail environment did not improve with the dawn of the democratic rule of
the past 16 years.
The main aim of this study was to evaluate the place and role of the re-introduced
SAPSRPU by analysing the impact since re-introduction of the SAPSRPU in the
CTMM. The research focused on a study of the relevant legislation and transport
policies in comparison to the safety and security of public components in the
passenger rail environment. The research was conducted by means of the
qualitative paradigm approach, with semi-structured interviews as the basis for
collecting the required information on the identified research population of the
elected commuter rail forum leadership and the SAPSRPU commanders in the
CTMM.
Chapter 1 provides an orientation and background to the study about the railway
police. Chapter 2 focuses on the place, key roles and functions, statutory
frameworks and regulatory policies of the SAPSRPU. Chapter 3 focuses on the
research methodology and the data analysis as regards the literature review and the
roles and functions of the SAPSRPU. Chapter 4 covers the key findings of the
research, while Chapter 5 covers the conclusions, limitations and recommendations
made. === Thesis (M. Development and Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010
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