**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."
