Vigilantes, clientalism, and the South African State

Abstract

On the afternoon of July 22, 1990, residents of Sebokeng watched nervously as a procession of vans and busses threaded its way towards the African township's stadium, carrying men to a rally called by Inkatha. Rumours of an attack by members of the conservative Zulu movement were rife, and tension mounted during the meeting. When it ended, several hundred local youths confronted the Inkatha supporters as they came out. Firebombs were hurled at an Inkatha member's house and the two groups started fighting, but police quickly dispersed the youths with tear gas. Then hundreds of Inkatha men surged through the dirt streets, breaking windows and stabbing and shooting people, until they reached and stormed a workers' hostel controlled by political opponents... This paper argues vigilantism is the continuation of clientelist politics by other means, to paraphrase Clausewitz's dictum on war. Drawing on South African experience and other cases, counter-revolutionary vigilantism is defined as the unlicensed use of private violence to defend an oligarchic clientelist state under popular challenge ...