Website: The History of the South African Police Force
Dear 43 Subscribers: From the desk of Hennie Heymans We are currently busy re-engineering engineering our SAP-website. We need a few photographs of “ladies in blue”please. We all had to go through a learning curve and our technical expert, Bruce Jones, even had to learn the basics of Joomla. To accommodate more photogrpahs we have decided to down-scale scale all photogrpahs we publish, publish on the website, to a scale of 640 x 480.
The Police’s Whose Who: ho: A - Z The first section we are doing over is the Who’s Who in the police and our antecedent southern Africa police forces. We are beginning at “A” and we will work our way up (or down?) to “Z”. We think that police personalities made to police, because without policemen you have no police force. As an interim rule we will place photogrpahs of “police graves” graves under the SAP’s Who’s Who in order for us to obtain more information on policemen. Later we hope to create a section for “Police Graves, Police Memorials emorials and Police Monuments” later.
Personal particulars of all policemen and civilians in police service welcome We invite our subscribers to send particulars and a CV of policeperson policepersons known to them e.g. their grandfather. This is the format we like to receive information: Originally officers had no force numbers. Older policemen e.g. Warrant Officers, NCO’s and Constables had a force number that began at No. 1 and moved upwards: Chief Inspector FW Trew 216F 1/c Sgt E Adams
669M 2/Sgt P Hitchon 6011F Const MJ van Wyk 18742F 2/Sgt AF Heymans 43630(B) Const HB Heymans Note: Later the suffix (M) for mounted or (B) for berede and (F) for Foot and (V) for voet fell away, so 18742F 2/Sgt AF Heymans became: 18742R Sgt AF Heymans. A further development took place with a numerical prefix and a numerical suffix in place of a letter suffix: 43630K Sgt HB Heymans became 0043630-5 Brig HB Heymans. Prefix number suffix Last rank Initials Surname Chief Insp HF Trew 216 F 1/c Sgt E Adams 00 43630 5 Brig HB Heymans Ranks There have changes in the rank system over the years. An Inspector in the SAP was a Captain while an Inspector in the SAPS was a Warrant Officer in the SAP. Later the rank reverted back to warrant Officer in the SAPS when they militarised their ranks. Likewise a Director became a Brigadier. Some officers went on pension as Brigadier, Director or once again as Brigadier. Guestbook & Nominal Role We are working on a guest book and a nominal role for the SAP and antecedent police forces in Southern Africa. As far as the nominal role is concerned, we ask you to send us your present or former police particulars.
Where are they now? I still after all these years remember my van crew’s force number and his particulars:
King’s Rest No 147002R Sgt Q Khumalo – SAP King’s Rest. My other van crews at King’s Rest were Constables MA Matabane, Gumede and Bekingkosi Cele. My Charge Office Sergeants were No 47174 Sgt RG Fall, Const 43915 PP Odendaal etc.
SAP Louis Botha Airport Sgt Nkosi
News KOEVOET: THE MEN SPEAK - Jonathan Pittaway •
Hennie Heymans has seen the draft of above book and it is a very beautiful book – certainly one of the best books on Koevoet he has ever seen. Jonathan is known for his excellent productions of Men Speak-series: The Long Range Desert Group; the Rhodesian SAS and the Selous Scouts and the next in line are the Koevoet-book.
The Cover
The Flyer
The eNONGQAI •
The eNONGQAI for June 2013 has achieved a record of 6000 hits in a few days! Thanks to all concerned.
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The eNONGQAI will in future carry all police history and anecdotes etc up to 1994.
The Africa Police Journal As we have decided to write anecdotes and articles in the eNONGQAi only up to 1994. The SAPS and other Police Forces in Africa will, God Willing, fall under the ambit of the new Africa Police Journal.
I am interested in Africa and the policing thereof – I have had discussions with Guy Martin editor of DefenceWeb. They carry a lot of SAPS and other African Police news. Here is his email: Hi Hennie Great to hear from you. You may quote freely from defenceWeb, as long as you attribute to us – something along the lines of ‘Republished courtesy of defenceWeb, Africa’s leading defence and security news portal. www.defenceweb.co.za’. Basically, as long as you acknowledge us and have a link to our website, it’s fine. Best of luck with your magazine. Kind regards, Guy Martin Editor defenceWeb www.defenceweb.co.za guy@defenceweb.co.za 0785310037
K’s Publications on the SAP K's first book "Mean Streets - Life in the Apartheid Police" is not your usual "troepie" book and deals with the period between 1985 and 1991 when K was a sergeant in the SAP learning the mean streets of crime and violence. Although at times humorous it is a deep and thought-provoking work which will be deliberated for many years to come. Not all will agree with the contents which are indeed unforgiving and entirely from a street policeman's viewpoint and not for everyone to enjoy. The book is 412 pages and available free of charge for download in electronic
formats
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PDF,
Epub
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Kindle
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www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JacobusKotze as well as a local website called Kindle Books at www.kindlebooks.co.za/category/authors/jk. At these sites you will also find K's other books on legal matters & counter terrorism to read if interested.
Dieselfde boek is vertaal in Afrikaans en beskikbaar as "Gewetenlose Strate - Lewe in die Apartheid Polisie" teen 'n koste van R65 by bogenoemde webwerwe. Dit is sowat 438 bladsye lank en is in PDF, Epub asook Kindle formaat beskikbaar. Daar is geen planne om die boeke te druk op papier nie en die Engelse een is verniet om die storie in die res van die wĂŞreld te versprei. Dis 'n storie wat gelees moet word en ek haal aan: "I have just finished reading Mean Streets and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Your book made me laugh and cry and shake my head in disbelief." "Dit was 'n besondere voorreg om jou boek te kon lees. Jou eerlikheid en jou onskuld "brand" na die oppervlakte deur soos 'n vergrootglas se hitte 'n wit vel papier skroei. Jy skryf van goed wat ek lankal van vergeet het ... hoe ons ons wyke gedomineer het ... Dankie vir die herinneringe. Die dae van waansin!" "This was simply the best police book I ever read and so different from the other troepie books. At least now I understand even if I do not agree with much of the contents." I would like to invite you to say a few words as well in our Website's newsletter. Dear Hennie. Thank you for the illuminating experience to talk to you for so many hours about the SAP and history in general. Since I left the SAP at the end of 1991 for University my world was very different and until I wrote "Mean Streets" I tried hard to forget the SAP and all it stood for. I always believed that if you do something you need to do it well. Thus I walked away and tried to forget and had almost no contact whatsoever with the police. Naturally as a human rights lawyer I was most probably also looked at sceptically by my former colleagues. Thus we deliberately ignored each other for 22 years. However as I learned through the years the SAP is not that easy to forget and will always remind you that once upon a time you were part of the proud blue line. That you commanded men in the real sense of the word and was treated with much
respect by the complainants and even the criminals after a fatherly talk. That you were the one who made the decisions at the crime scenes and as per SAP tradition faced the criminals head on, as was expected of you. That you saw and experienced things and times which no man has enough money to pay for. That you demanded and deserved respect from everyone and anyone just because you were identified as a member of the SAP! It was not easy for me to go back into history and remember incidents I did not want to remember when I wrote "Mean Streets". Many times I sat staring at the computer screen wondering if it is possible to explain to "haasmanne" how it feels to be professional at a crime scene when you feel the pain of the victims and wish you could say something which will lessen their anguish even if only with a few curse words. Or when you are out of breath and keep on running anyway whilst an angry instructor gets fatherly with you to confess the error of you liberal tendencies and it is only pride which keeps you going (hate also at times). Or how it feels when you stand at a funeral of a colleague thanking God silently that you are not the Chaplain and the Colonel who has to talk and comfort the parents or wife whose emotions is so raw that you can feel it many miles away. Yes I wondered if it would be possible to explain the pride you felt when you heard the police dogs bark and you know that satan himself will soon regret his horrible ways and you hear the crowds roar of approval as you load the criminal into the van or squad car. Or when you hear the calm voice of ROMEO advising you on an "all vehicles" request for a serious incident and you hear the call signs responding and the police sirenes as good men (and women) place their lives on the line for strangers whilst being paid less than a cleaner at the beer brewery. Then the next day you read only abuse in the newspapers and about so called "police brutality" for obtaining a confession from a known criminal as his lawyer's searches for spurious defences in court and it looks suspiciously to you that the court is more willing to agree with the criminal than with you. Or in later years you read and hear that your proud SAP was an
"instrument of terror" and you really should not mention your service years if you want that job and no-one is interested in your story to begin with the past being the past and all that old chap. Or you read the rubbish of dagga smokers and other horrible stories about servicemen in books published with great fanfare bowing to the god of political correctness. Yes, I wondered if it would be possible to explain the truth which was the opposite and in fact I still wonder for I get mostly two reviews on "Mean Streets" - either "love it" or "hate it". Does that mean I succeeded or did I fail in my explanation? Does it even matter? And whilst you type you realise you are different and should be proud of it too. You served with honour even if the system was dishonourable for reasons beyond your control and pay grade. You remember that the first and foremost principal for a policeman is to save lives. To protect the weak against evil and nothing will take that away for you did it many times. Let the Nay Sayers write their hateful reviews for we know the truth and the calibre of man the SAP produced. We worked with them and we saw the old traditions trampled by failed liberal policies. Yes there are many today who long for the "instrument of terror" to return and the police be trusted again and suddenly you are glad that it is many years later and the SAP is no more. It cannot be abused any longer and its memory can indeed be upheld by men like you who decided to create a library and publications as these. The SAP lives in our hearts. We have a chance to ensure it is never dishonoured again by the fat politicians and thus I ask that everyone writes his story and send it to you for safekeeping so that our children's children are able to read and understand long after we cannot. Yes I assure you there are millions out there who want to hear what you have to say. You owe the SAP this last honour. Tell me your story.� From the desk of Johan Jacobs Good evening to all! What a great idea to publish a news letter on the SAP-Webpage. Hennie, here is my contribution for the news letter: It is a great privilege for me to be involved with the webpage and I am tasked to resize the photos! It will also give me
the opportunity to look at all the historical photos from way back until 1994. At the moment my PC monitor is in for repairs and hopefully I will start on Saturday. This is all from us this month, Greetings, Hennie Heymans.