Multiplicity of Power: Understanding the Pluralised Policing Landscape in Contemporary Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the pluralised policing landscape in Cape Town, South Africa. Within the pluralised policing landscape we look at the following actors: Community Policing Forum (CPF), South African Police Service (SAPS), private security companies (PSCs), and bottom-up community policing groups. In this anthropological study we look at how these four policing actors provide citizen security in two neighbourhoods in Cape Town, namely Rondebosch and Hout Bay. The strength of this research lies in the holistic approach on the pluralised policing landscape in Cape Town, South Africa. We argue that the four policing actors are supplement to and interrelated with each other. The different policing actors will not be able to fully provide citizen security without one another as they all contribute to citizen security in the following ways: the police-community relationship, legal authority, resources and manpower, and intrinsic motivation. However, the provision of citizen security is impeded by broader social processes that have an impact on crime. The four policing actors are the first respondents to provide citizen security but will not solve the underlying problems that cause crime.