The effect of human rights norms on policing in the North West province of South Africa, with the particular reference to Mmabatho and Vryburg policing area

Abstract

This research is all about the effect of human rights norms on policing particularly in the Mmabatho and Vryburg police stations in the North West Province of the Republic of South Africa. These stations were chosen because Mmabatho is a former Bophuthatswana police station while Vryburg is a former South African police station. The historical context in which these stations find themselves as well as the challenges of transformation faced by each station present the central pith of our investigation. The research starts by looking at the international instruments on human rights and how they have domesticated into the new South African legal order, thereby influencing our laws and policies. It also looks at policing in seasoned democracies like the United States of America and the United Kingdom with a view to learning important lessons from these mature democracies .. The research is intended to look at how human rights norms have impacted on policing in these two stations. This entails an attitudinal survey of members serving in these stations as well as the communities that they serve.

This means that members who were trained and used to serve the same community under the former dispensation are now faced with the challenges of serving the very same community under a different political dispensation anchored on a human rights culture. The central question here is whether members of the South African Police Service in these stations are trained and ready to face the new challenges including being psychologically and emotionally transformed? The same goes to the surrounding communities, whether they are ready to accept the new policing methods and strategies demanded by the new constitutional democracy. In the final analysis, this study aims to elucidate how approaches to policing and crime combating strategies have been transformed and reshaped to be in line with the letter and spirit of the Constitution and other instruments. The law is stated as at 30 June 2007. international law The study then ends up with some observations and recommendations to all stakeholders, especially the police management m the North West Province, other government departments, the community, Traditional Leaders and the academic community.