was used only for areas of military operations in the 'border areas'. Its introduction into the urban areas together with the associated controls on journalists and the evidence of a military presence indicates the extent to which the urban areas have come to be seen as a field of military type operations.
The first major involvement of the army in the urban areas since the emergency of 1960 and the foundation of the Republic in 1961 appears to have been in the uprisings of 1976, when the police force was overstretched in trying to contain the protests.
The initiation in 1978 of the new procedures and their subsequent implementation appears to result from a recognition that the police force would be unable to cope on its own with the rising level of resistance, or even with the routine implementation of apartheid laws.
Parallel with the increased use of the military in police work has been the development, to an even greater extent than before, of the police as a para-military force. Their equipment and armaments, and the use of camouflage uniforms are one aspect of this.
A series of amendments to legislation in 1979 and 1980 gave the regime the power to deploy the South African Police and the South African Railway Police, alongside the army, outside South Africa's borders as well as inside. The Minister of Transport explained certain changes in the top structure of the Railway Police as a strengthening necessitated by political developments and counter-insurgency requirements.
JOINT DIRECTION Not only have they developed structures for joint operations, but high level co-ordination joint planning by police, army and government departments has been reported as part of the response to the mass protests of 1980. In one well publicised case, army personnel, representatives of the police, security police and the police counter-insurgency unit met with officials of the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Co-operation and Development to discuss the school boycotts and general unrest in the Eastern Cape.
