Abstract
M.A.
Ethnic conflict, a reality throughout the world, demands strong
action and firm control from the Military and Police Forces of
affected societies. It is important that the Police, in any
given society, should act impartially and objectively in the
execution of their duties. Policing of ethnic groups in conflict
should therefore take place without differentiating between
population groups.
This study investigates the attitudes of black policemen towards
ethnic violence as related to (i) factors like ethnic identification,
loyalty to the South African Police and their experience
of violence and (ii) certain biographic factors namely mother
tongue, age, academic qualifications, rank, division, area
stationed, years of service, marital status, children, school
going children, place of residence, acknowledgement of traditional
tribal heads and period of participation in the study.
In this study empirical research was conducted in which a
questionnaire was completed by a sample of 298 black policemen.
The questionnaire consisted of questions on the biographical
background of black policemen as well as questions measuring
their attitude towards ethnic violence, their ethnic identification,
their loyalty to the South African Police and their
experience of violence.
To measure the above-mentioned factors, four scales were
developed by means of factor analysis and item analysis. Ethnic
identification, loyalty to the South African Police, experience
of violence and attitude towards ethnic violence were further
analysed in terms of the biographical background of policemen,
making use of one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe's paired
comparisons, Hotelling T2 and t tests and Pearsons correlation.
It was found that black policemen who are South Sotho speaking identify stronger with their ethnic group than Zulu speaking
policemen. It was further found that black policemen who joined
the South African Police with service for their country as
motive, who acknowledge traditional tribal heads and experienced
verbal insult and intimidation in a high degree, have a strong
identification with their ethnic group.
With regard to loyalty to the South African Police, it was found
that black policemen stationed in Soweto, are more loyal to the
police than policemen stationed on the East Rand. It was also
found that black policemen who joined the South African Police
with service for their country as motive, and who are older, are
more loyal to the police.
Regarding black policemen's experience of violence, it was found
that policemen who are stationed on the East Rand experienced
more violence than black policemen stationed in Soweto. It was
also found that black policemen who experience a high degree of
verbal insult and intimidation, and those who participated in the
study just after the election have experienced a high degree
of violence.
Regarding the intercorrelation between the different scales, it
was found that the more black policemen identify with their
ethnic group, the more they experience violence and the more they
approve of ethnic violence. It was further found that black
policemen who approve of ethnic violence, identify stronger with their ethnic group, are less loyal to the South African Police
and experience violence to a higher degree.