**Self Defence Units (SDU)**
*noun* (South African East Rand / township slang, 1990s violence era)
These days, Self Defence Units (SDUs) are
history in South African townships — officially disbanded after 1994 with the new democracy and integrated security forces, though
ex-members occasionally pop up in local civic groups or
politics in places like Thokoza and Katlehong. Its dark
history is complex and controversial: created by the ANC at the start of the transition to
stop violence by the apartheid state,
police, and surrogate forces like IFP hostels, they were meant to protect communities and often succeeded in shielding sections from attacks during the Reef wars (positives included providing real defence where the state failed). But the negatives involved severe
gross human rights violations — many units lost control, turning to extortion, torture, civilian killings, and even internal attacks on their own side: in 1993 in Katlehong, one SDU massacred up to 12 ANC Youth League members in a bloody internal feud over power and divisions within the same organisation.
"The Self Defence Units held the
line against the hostels on our
side of Khumalo Street, but they also did their own
damage like when they took out those ANCYL guys in Katlehong."
