In this paper the author traces some of the changes which occurred in the security establishment in 1990, tempers these with an examination of what has not changed, and investigates some of the processes which need to occur to ensure that, as far as the security forces are concerned, things do not ultimately stay the same.
This research project attempted to make a beginning at establishing whether structural violence did in fact play a significant part in the upbringing and experiences of those on Pretoria's death row. The project sought to construct a profile of the condemned prisoner. In order to establish biographical details, relatives and friends of 26 people on death row in 1988 were interviewed. The project also attempted to assess the legal road people had travelled to death row. Records were examined of the trials in which 40 people (including the 26 in the first sample) were sentenced to death. The samples drawn on were small, but it was hoped that the project was nevertheless a useful initial venture into an unchartered territory.
This paper will seek to suggest that the operation of vigilante groups in South Africa's black areas since 1985 is an expression of the militarisation of South Africa, that the prevalence and operation of these groups should be seen as the internal equivalent of the strategy of destabilisation of neighbouring states.