Mabangalala: The Rise of Right-Wing Vigilantes in South Africa

A particularly disturbing aspect of the growing violence in South Africa, right-wing vigilantism represents both a new tool of the police to contain antigovernment activity and a genuine reaction to youthful radicalism within black communities. A harrowing picture of vicious, unbridled assault against anti-apartheid activists (sometimes with police compliance) emerges from the compilation of current documentation put together by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the Black Sash, the National Committee on Removals and a number of community groups in an extraordinary effort during February 1986.