Evaluation of the place and role of the re-introduced South African Police Service Railway Police Unit in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan municipality / Mkhacani Godfrey Maluleke

• Main Author: Maluleke, Mkhacani Godfrey
• Language: en
• Published: North-West University 2013
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10394/8307

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