**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."
