Military and the Making of Modern South Africa

Abstract

This book is a critical examination of the military and the police and their role in shaping the South African state during the 20th century, and especially during the past thirty years. Looking at the "security establishment" - the South African Defence Force (SADF), South African Police (SAP), the Department of Defence (DOD), the intelligence services (NIS), the State Security Council (SSC) and the arms industry (ARMSCOR), the nature of the South African state is examined including the importance of the military and the question of the state's position - police state, military dictatorship or a state with an important but essentially limited role for the military. The case is made for an even-handed moral approach in the state's military activity. This book provides histories of the military and police in the 19th and 20th centuries including first-hand accounts from retired officers and state employees. It contains much original thinking and analysis and shows how the South African state is now in crisis, trying to maintain minority rule or at least white influence, despite the inevitable end of the white minority state.