“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Tilburg University
Faculty of Humanities
Master ‘Management of Cultural Diversity’ 2011 – 2012
Student: I.H.M. van Heel
ANR: 327623
Supervisors: MSc. P. Mutsaers, Dr. M. Spotti
Second reader: Dr. V. Draulans
Word count: 19.250

“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Details student:
Student:
ANR:
Iris van Heel
327623
Name of Supervisors:
Supervisors: MSc. P. Mutsaers, Dr. M. Spotti
Second reader: Dr. V. Draulans
Title of Master Thesis Circle:
Experiences of (in) security in diverse settings.
Title of the thesis:
“Birds of the same feather flock together”; A case study of multilingualism within the South
African Police Service Potchefstroom.
Abstract
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) recognizes eleven official languages.
The intention of this generous adaption by the post-apartheid government was to establish equality amongst the South Africans, which was absent during the apartheid. Despite all efforts taken by the government, it appears that, in practice, society is degrading towards a monolingual public life, and the disadvantage of African speakers is increasing. Several researchers studied the South African language policies and its practices (Barkhuizen & De Klerk, 2001, 2002;
Beukes, 2009; Ngcobo, 2009; Webb, 1999, 2009), but this research remains limited in a police context. Therefore, with a Critical Discourse Analysis approach; this case study scrutinizes how police officers in Potchefstroom (South Africa) deal with language in interethnic encounters.
This case study reveals what struggles police officers are facing because of multilingualism and how they take the language policy into their own hands.
Keywords: Multilingualism; South Africa; South African Police Service; Critical Discourse
Analysis; Language Policy; Linguistic Repertoires.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Little did she knew.. The girl that started her Bachelor Human Resources in 2005 would end her study journey with a master thesis about multilingualism in the South African police context.
While I was studying for my Bachelor, it was clear to me that I had no ambitions to go further into the world of science. However, after a year of being a full time HR assistant, I could not deny the desire to go back to college and obtain more in-depth knowledge. What I always missed in my bachelor was a link with globalization and the international corporate life. As I saw everyone around me going abroad gaining life-time experiences; how could I settle with a study that is focused on the Netherlands? The solution was in the premaster and master program
Management of Cultural Diversity.
If I would have known how many effort it would take and sacrifices I had to make to finalize this study, I would have thought twice. However, looking back the knowledge and experience I gained me, the last two years are priceless. I feel privileged that I had the opportunity to end this journey with a research abroad. Although South Africa sometimes came across as frightening to me, I felt very welcome by the wonderful people I met, and the beautiful landscapes the country has to offer. Conducting my master thesis research abroad was not only an enrichment for me as a person and a researcher, all of the theory that was studied throughout the premaster and master program fell in place and became more clear than ever.
This research would not have taken place if I was not supported by a few people in particular, to whom I want to show my gratitude. First, my supervisors Paul Mutsaers and
Massimiliano Spotti, who had to be very patient with me, but always, supported me in the right direction. Thank you for your inspiring coaching. Also, Veerle Draulans, who was my second reader I want to thank for her critical eye and feedback on my thesis. Bennie Linde, from North
West University Potchefstroom, who helped me to obtain access to the South African Police
Service and gave me a taste of living in South Africa. Thank you for your guidance and hospitality, or as we would say in South Africa; baie danki. Jan Blommaert, a very busy professor and an expert in the field of African studies and linguistics, who took the time to share
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” his detailed knowledge with me. Without my parents, sisters and boyfriend who never stopped believing in me I would have never dared to go on this adventure. Thank you for supporting me, no matter what. Finally, without my informants I would have nothing to write about. I want to thank them for being open and honest to me. Hopefully this thesis is a truthful reflection of your experiences in your everyday life.
Having said that, I now want to proudly present my master thesis research, and wish you a pleasant reading.
Iris van Heel
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Problem statement ................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 Research question and sub-questions .................................................................................... 8
1.3 Academic and societal relevance ........................................................................................ 10
2. Theory ....................................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis ................................................................................................. 10
2.1.1. Ideology ....................................................................................................................... 11
2.1.2 Contextualization .......................................................................................................... 12
2.2 Multilingualism in South Africa ......................................................................................... 13
2.2.1 Dangerous multilingualism........................................................................................... 15
2.3 Police culture ....................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.1 Police culture and language .......................................................................................... 17
2.3.2 From Police ‘Force’ to ‘Service’ .................................................................................. 18
2.4 Daily interactions ................................................................................................................ 19
2.4.1 Linguistic repertoires .................................................................................................... 19
2.4.2 “White Talk” ................................................................................................................. 20
2.5 Language policy .................................................................................................................. 21
3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 22
3.1 Research design ................................................................................................................... 22
3.2 Sample strategy ................................................................................................................... 23
3.3 Negotiation of access and data collection ........................................................................... 25
3.3.1 Participant observation ................................................................................................. 26
3.3.2 Interviews ..................................................................................................................... 27
3.4 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................... 29
3.5 Research quality indicators ................................................................................................. 30
4. Institutional context .................................................................................................................. 32
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
4.1 South African Police Service .............................................................................................. 32
4.2 SAPS Potchefstroom ........................................................................................................... 32
4.3 Potchefstroom police officers’ daily function ..................................................................... 33
5. Results ....................................................................................................................................... 34
5.1 Language policy within SAPS Potchefstroom .................................................................... 35
5.2 Ethnic diversity within SAPS Potchefstroom ..................................................................... 36
5.3 Ethno-linguistic diversity within SAPS Potchefstroom ...................................................... 37
5.4 Multilingualism in the Potchefstroom police environment ................................................. 40
5.4.1 Communication with colleagues .................................................................................. 41
5.4.2 Communication with outsiders ..................................................................................... 47
6.Conclusions and Discussion ...................................................................................................... 51
6.1 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 51
6.1.1 Language policy ........................................................................................................... 52
6.1.2 Interactions between police officers ............................................................................. 53
6.1.3 Interactions between police officers and outsiders ....................................................... 56
6.2 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 58
6.2.1 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 58
6.2.2 Recommendations for future research .......................................................................... 59
References ..................................................................................................................................... 62
Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 68
Appendix 1: Abstract Fieldnotes ............................................................................................... 68
Appendix 2: Interview guide ..................................................................................................... 70
Appendix 3: Transcripts ............................................................................................................ 72
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
The aim of this research was exploring how police officers from the Potchefstroom Police
Station deal with multilingualism in interethnic encounters. This chapter provides an introduction to the complex South African language situation, which ends with the research- and subquestions that were central in this study. Chapter two elaborates relevant theory for this research.
Chapter three explains the methodology that was adopted throughout this study. The fourth chapter provides insight in the institutional context, where the studied police officers operate.
Chapter five covers the results that were obtained. In the last chapter, conclusions were drawn, and connections were made between literature and findings. First, the problem statement of this research is elaborated.
1.1 Problem statement
The nature of power has been theorized by many scholars, ranging from Plato to Hobbes,
Machiavelli, Marx, Gramsci, Foucault and Althusser (Blommaert, 2005). It can be stated that power is a fascinating subject to study as power has a widely theorized history and is still determining our lives today. Power is an instrument that differentiates, selects, includes and excludes, and is able to create inequality on society (Blommaert, 2005). Language is one of the determinants for the production, maintenance, and change of social relations of power
(Fairclough, 1989). The combination of language and power and its effects on society is what is being studied in a ‘school’ called Critical Discourse Analysis (from now onwards CDA).
Language is an important construct to establish and maintain a nation (Hailemariam, 2002;
Jørgensen, 2008). Therefore, many countries have registered an official language in their constitution. A unique case is South Africa, where the constitution acknowledges no less than eleven official languages. During the apartheid regime, only English and Afrikaans where recognized with an official nation-wide status (Broeder, Extra & Maartens, 2002). With the inauguration of the ANC
1
a new constitution was adopted; the era of a multilingual South Africa
1
ANC stands for African National Congress. Since the ending of the apartheid this has been the governing party of South Africa with the support of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” had begun. The obvious challenge was (and still is) how to transform the apartheid language policy to a post-apartheid one (Broeder et al., 2002). A change of this magnitude requires a 180 degree turn in the attitudes of people, their values, norms, and aspirations, as Webb (1999) states;
“It requires rebalancing the existing asymmetric power relations in the country, and bringing about the educational, economic and political development of the people of the country” (p.
364). This task is made even more difficult by the social, political and economic forces operating in South Africa (Webb, 1999).
Many efforts and language policies were made by the South African government to realize this transition. For example the Pan South African Language Board Act in 1995, the Language
Plan Task Group (LANGTAG) of 1996, and the National Language Policy Framework published in 2003 (Beukes, 2009). Unfortunately, the general conclusion drawn by several researchers is that the goal of ‘equal use of African languages in public domains’ as stated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), has not been reached, despite all of the attempts (Beukes,
2009; Ngcobo, 2009; Webb, 1999; Webb; 2009). There even appear to be various signs that
South Africa is regressing to where it was before the apartheid era, and that it remains to be monolingual in its public life (Webb, 2009). This is recognized by the LANGTAG (in
Barkhuizen & De Klerk, 2002), where it is stated that the “African languages are being marginalized, and the legacy of sociolinguistic disadvantage in the majority of South Africans
(i.e. speakers of African languages) is increased” (p. 162).
To recapitulate, with the transition to a multilingual South Africa in 1996, the post-apartheid government anticipated the power of language by acknowledging eleven official languages to create equality in society. However, there appears to be a discrepancy between what is regarded as very important in the constitution and what is happening in South African’s daily institutional life.
Beside their function of combating crime and protecting society, the South African Police
Service (from now onwards SAPS) is a stakeholder in the maintenance of the official languages in the public domain (Blommaert, Tutor meeting, February 24, 2012). The SAPS should be equally accessible in all of the eleven languages to every client, to provide everyone with the
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” same service. However, when going to their website, the only possibility for the language of the website is English. This raises serious questions of how the SAPS manages the equal treatment of the official languages, and how this endangers the equal treatment of citizens.
From the problem statement so far, three themes are evident; power, language, and inequality. These themes come together, and are central in CDA. The police context, where power is institutionally reproduced because one actor is a police officer, makes this the ideal context to study how language can create and maintain boundaries in society. With its highly diverse society and turbulent history of apartheid where people were marginalized because of their race, the South African context gives the opportunity to involve the ethno-racial aspect, to study whether ethnicity or race is still a determining factor in the division of power relations and in turn linguistic behavior.
1.2 Research question and sub-questions
The aim of this research was to explore whether the SAPS acknowledges the importance of language and its multilayered purposes, and how multilingualism is being dealt with by police officers when confronted with different ethnicities. To study this, the following research question was formulated:
“How do police officers from SAPS Potchefstroom deal with multilingualism in daily interactions?”
This research question was divided in the following sub-questions:
1.
Interactions between police officers:
1.1
In what language(s) do police officers communicate with each other?
1.2
What are the occasions when police officers communicate with each other?
1.3
For what purposes do police officers communicate with each other?
1.4
To what extent is communication between police officers affected by a language policy?
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
2.
Interactions between police officers and clients:
2.1
In what language(s) do police officers communicate with clients?
2.2
What are the occasions when police officers communicate with clients?
2.3
For what purposes do police officers communicate with clients?
2.4
To what extent is communication between police officers and clients affected by a language policy?
3.
Interactions between police officers and offenders:
3.1
In what language(s) do police officers communicate with offenders?
3.2
What are the occasions when police officers communicate with offenders?
3.3
For what purposes do police officers communicate with offenders?
3.4
To what extent is communication between police officers and offenders affected by a language policy?
4.
Interactions between similar ethnic individuals:
4.1
In what language do police officers communicate with colleagues with a similar ethnic background?
4.2
In what language do police officers communicate with clients with a similar ethnic background?
4.3
In what language do police officers communicate with offenders with a similar ethnic background?
5.
Interactions between different ethnic individuals:
5.1
In what language do police officers communicate with colleagues from a different ethnic background then their own?
5.2
In what language do police officers communicate with clients from a different ethnic background then their own?
5.3
In what language do police officers communicate with offenders from a different ethnic background then their own?
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
1.3 Academic and societal relevance
The relevance of this thesis is as well academic as societal. Academically, it contributes to literature concerning Critical Discourse Analysis as this research is conducted within this framework. As this research is conducted in a South African context, it provides new insight whether the assumptions of this theory will remain, as CDA is primarily focused upon power, language and inequality in the Western world (Blommaert, 2005). Despite this Western focus, the South African police context contains all of the aspects that are central in a CDA study its apartheid history where ethnicity, the role of the police, and unequal treatment have a controversial relationship. As far as could be studied, only a small amount of literature is available concerning language-oriented studies in the South African police environment. On a more general level, this research contributes to existing literature about language in institutionalized environments in multilingual society. This research is an addition to what is available concerning these topics today. Practically, the findings of this thesis provide useful feedback for the SAPS concerning the linguistic behavior of the police officers and its effect. As previous research revealed that the equal treatment of languages is deteriorating, this research serves as an ‘eye opener’ for the SAPS. On societal level, creating awareness of the importance of language contributes to enhancing equal treatment in an institutionalized environment.
2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis
In the study of Fairclough (1989), ground was set for a new ‘movement’, named Critical
Discourse Analysis. CDA offers a critical perspective on language and power in society, specifically reproduced power in institutions are central (Blommaert, 2005). CDA is concerned with the analysis of relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control that manifest in language (Wodak, 1999). In the words of Widdowson (1998) “CDA is linguistics with a conscience and a cause, one which seeks to reveal how language is used and abused in the exercise of power and suppression of human rights” (p. 136). Especially in institutionalized
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” environments, power is defined in a certain role. Therefore, in a setting as a police station, where the individuals involve police officers, clients and offenders, there will be a particular power dynamic because of the natural roles that these individuals exhibit (Wodak, as cited in
Blommaert, 2005). The power relation and how this manifests in discourse, is an important aspect in the interactions between police officers, clients and offenders, is an important feature of
CDA.
Just as other critical theories and methods such as linguistic anthropology, critical sociology, critical linguistics etcetera, CDA boldly promises to be a comprehensive theory that will provide the basis for political action to actuate radical social change (Hammersley, 1997).
However, CDA emphasizes to explain ‘common-sense’ assumptions which are embedded in the taken-for-granted settlements according to which people interact, and of which people are generally not consciously aware (Fairclough, 1989). An example in a police context would be that a client enters a police station, where authority and hierarchy are natural; the police officer is in the position to determine how a problem should be dealt with and the client is not; it is ‘right’ that the police officer makes the decisions and controls how an accusation is being handled, and the client should cooperate. In this research, specifically what language is used and whether this differs for colleagues and outsiders from different ethnicities, is a valuable source to see how power relations are maintained or changed in society. Taking these aspects into account, this framework appears to be very suitable for this research. The following paragraph elaborates upon ideologies that underlie the common-sense assumptions.
2.1.1. Ideology
When combining discourse and power, the term ideology cannot be missed. Especially in CDA, ideology appears to be a topic that has been studied by a number of theorists (Fairclough, 1989;
Hodge & Kress, 1993; Van Dijk, 1995, 2011). Fairclough (1989) argues that the relation between language and ideology is taken for granted; as language is the most common form of social behavior and the form of social behavior we mostly rely on are common-sense assumptions,
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” which are shaped by ideologies. However, analysing daily interactions can reveal the extent to which individuals’ language rests upon common – sense, and the ways in which these assumptions are shaped by relations of power. Van Dijk (1995) proposes ‘ideology’ as follows:
Ideologies are localized between societal structures and the structures in the minds of social members. They allow social actors to ‘ translate’ their social properties (identity, goal, position etc.) into the knowledge and beliefs that make up the concrete models of their everyday life experiences, that is, the mental representations of their actions and discourse. Indirectly, therefore, ideologies control how people plan and understand their social practices, and hence also the structures of text and talk. (pp. 20-21)
In other words, Van Dijk (1995) insists that language, in a socio-cognitive matter, is determined by ideologies which reinforce social structures. An answer to how these cognitive patterns end up in people’s minds is provided by Althusser (as cited in Blommaert, 2005). Althusser introduces the term ‘ideological state apparatus’, which means the complex of institutions below the level of a governmental state, but cooperating and influencing the state; for example churches, the media and other interest groups (Blommaert, 2005). Althusser argues that ideology needs to be understood as a process, and requires institutional structures and practices of power and authority (Blommaert, 2005). This implies that the police context, which is an institution that has power to control society entitled by the government, is the embodiment of the government and its indirect stakeholders, and carries out the ideology of what the nation from this government should look like. Linking this to this research, an important aspect is to investigate whether the police is really carrying out the colorblind constitution, or individuals’ own cognitive structures prevail. Especially in South Africa, where there are eleven official recognized languages that should be treated equal, the use of a certain language is a clear indicator of how the ideology manifests in practice.
2.1.2 Contextualization
Beside the focus on language, power and inequality, CDA offers another feature that is important to consider in this research. Special attention was paid to the context in which language is
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” produced and how interpretation can affect a power relation between actors. Also, as Blommaert
(2005) states, “context is the most basic principle that needs to be used, and it is required in any kind of analysis” (p. 40).
To a certain extent, contextualization is self evident. Interaction takes place between actors at a particular time and place with a certain purpose. Context is a determining feature of meaning making in interactions. However, Auer (1992) elaborates on the conceptualization of context and adds how context requires a reflexive attitude. Gumperz (1992) insists on taking
‘context in a reflexive fashion’ into account, as this is a requirement to understand communication. Reflexive means that context is not self-evident in interactions, but the outcome of actors’ efforts to make it available. It is more complex than a number of actors at a certain place in a certain time, but involves the cognitive models at any given point in time that allows to include or exclude certain material and social surroundings of the interaction (Auer, 1992). In other words, actors in interaction add different values to certain words or venues, because of different cognitive predispositions. In the CDA approach which the researcher adopted for this study, it is thus important to consider which linguistic repertoires the police officers reveal, and more important, what they do not reveal when interacting with colleagues and outsiders from similar and different ethnicities.
2.2 Multilingualism in South Africa
In this paragraph the unique case of multilingualism in South Africa will be discussed. Despite the justice that is being reflected in the official status of eleven languages, multilingualism (in this specific context) also comes with a dark side. This is called dangerous multilingualism and is discussed in the following sub-paragraph.
South Africa is the country that is being referred to as the ‘Rainbow Nation’, because of its rich variety of cultural and language groups. This variety is a result of the settlement of different groups of individuals over the centuries. The very first inhabitants of the country were the San and the Khoe people. From around the 12 th
century, the Bantu tribe who lived over the whole continent came to the South. It was from the 17 th
century that the European (Portuguese,
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25
20
15
10
5
0
Dutch, French, Germans, and British) and Eastern (Malaysia, Indonesia and India) explorers set foot on South African soil (Beukes, 2004). All of them left their marks behind, which makes the contemporary society of the country so diverse.
Today, eleven languages are recognized as official by the post apartheid government (as mentioned in the problem statement). The following graph illustrates what these eleven languages are, and the percentage of the South African population that uses these language as their home language (Statistics South Africa, 2001).
Language spoken in SA homes
23,8%
17,6%
13,3%
9,4%
8,2% 8,2%
7,9%
4,4%
2,7%
2,3%
1,6%
0,5%
Graph 1. Percentages language spoken in South African homes.
Despite of the fact that these figures have been retrieved by the Statistics South Africa eleven years ago, they are the most up-to-date, available figures and provide insight in which the most dominant languages are. Remarkably, English, that has been and still is dominant in public life
(Webb, 2009), is only spoken by 8,2% of the South African households. Therefore, it is questionable why IsiZulu and IsiXhosa, the two most spoken languages in South African homes, have no larger share in the public domain. In line with Alexander (2011), English has been the language of rejection to the racial order in South Africa, as Afrikaans was characterized as “the language of the oppressor” (Alexander, 2011). For historical reasons that go even further back
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” than apartheid, English became the language of aspiration, liberation, and national unity for
South Africans (Alexander, 2011). The images of Afrikaans as being the ‘language of the oppressor’, and English as ‘the language of success’ (Blommaert, Muyllaert, Huysmans &
Dyers, 2005; Downes, as cited in Kamwangamalu, 2001) imply that there is a discrepancy between what is happening in daily life, and what is addressed in the Constitution (1996). The constitution does not only state that all languages should be treated equal, but practical and positive measures should be taken towards the historically marginalized languages (the African languages) (Beukes, 2004). Although these macro-level intentions are included in the
Constitution, there are no operational measures described. Therefore, several task groups were appointed by the government.
The operationalization of successful linguistic diversity takes place on three different levels (Beukes, 2004). Therefore, it is hard to retrieve what is exactly being implemented, as this differs per municipality. First; on a national level, where four different ministries take responsibility for language policies in education and courts. The second level is provincial, where each of the nine provinces can customize language policies with regional circumstances.
Finally, the local municipality must develop language policies that are relevant for local affairs.
On the one hand, it is obviously more efficient to make a policy for the most common languages in a certain region. However, providing power to the provincial and local governments to decide what languages are supposed to be spoken on specific areas, and make each province their own customized policy, can enhance exclusion and unequal treatment.
2.2.1 Dangerous multilingualism
Flows of goods and people crisscrossing the continents, and technologies that enable us to contact others elsewhere in the world seem limitless. Therefore, today multilingualism is unavoidable. For individuals, being bi- or multilingual can be beneficial as this is a valued asset in corporate life. However, on the societal level, multilingualism is more often known as a threat than enrichment; this is when the term ‘dangerous multilingualism’ enters. The government of a country imposes which language is official for the nation through policing (Hornberger, as cited
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” in Kroon & Spotti, 2011). By assigning an ‘official’ label to a certain language, the State indirectly declares other languages as an obstruction to the institutionalized environment’s own functionality (Kroon & Spotti, 2011). An individual that does not speak that language in the institutionalized environment can be seen as ‘ill-fitting’; this appellation is a danger for the individual as one is more likely to be excluded based on his or her language (Kroon & Spotti,
2011). In the South African context, dangerous multilingualism can even be applied to the socialidentity construction of an individual. Here, ethnicity and language used to be the traits that divided society during the apartheid era (Kamwangamalu, 2001). Because of the apartheid legacy South African languages entail, certain ethnicities are being expected to speak a certain language. As Afrikaans is stigmatized as the ‘oppressor’s language’, and for example a white
South African is expected to speak Afrikaans, one would not want to be related with legacy of this language, and therefore avoid speaking it, even though it is ones mother tongue
(Kamwangamalu, 2001). In such an event, multilingualism becomes dangerous as it damages the image of belonging to or speaking Afrikaans which is harmful to the identity development of the
Afrikaners (white, Afrikaans speaking South Africans).
Even though eleven languages have the official status in South Africa, it could be conceivable that dangerous multilingualism is not relevant for this country. However, because of the stigmas that languages carry, and the language policy that is fragmented over the entire country, dangerous multilingualism is more relevant than expected. Especially in an institutionalized environment where this research took place, it is highly likely that the individuals involved in this research are victims of multilingualism.
2.3 Police culture
The following relevant topic to this study is police culture. As culture and language are highly intertwined, it is relevant to observe how police culture is influencing police officers’ use of linguistic repertoires towards colleagues and outsiders. Especially when different ethnicities encounter. In the first paragraph, general theory concerning police culture and language were explored. The second paragraph discusses the specific South African Police Service
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” management, as it’s changed from an apartheid Police Force to a democratic Police Service, which distinctly involves the police organization and the culture in this country.
2.3.1 Police culture and language
“Police culture includes special knowledge and skills, ways of thinking and working, rituals and rules of thumb, language and vocabulary, sensibilities and even body language that police have developed in their work” (Wakefield & Fleming, 2009, p. 72). In this quote, language and vocabulary are important aspects of police culture and apparently contributes to the creation of police officers’ daily interaction. Therefore an exploration of this topic is essential for this research.
Over the years, several researchers have identified key features of police culture on an operational level. “Police officers traditionally perceive their work in terms of waging ‘a war against crime’, maintaining order and protecting people’s lives and property” (Wakefield &
Fleming, 2009, p. 72). However, it appears that when police officers are in the job for some time, they can develop a cynical view of their social environment and develop a constantly suspicious attitude (Wakefield & Fleming, 2009). It even appears that police officers tend to categorize the public into stereotypes, and are often prejudiced against ethnic minorities and police officers view minority members as a potential criminal threat (Hasisi, 2008; Wakefield & Fleming,
2009). This implies that police officers might develop a certain aversion towards certain groups of people, offenders, and criminals. Therefore, in this research the distinction was made between interactions between police officers, clients and offenders (outsiders), to study whether language repertoires when involved with these groups differed, and unequal treatment is lurking. In line with CDA, this research provided the opportunity to study how ethnicity influences the use for a police officers’ linguistic repertoire.
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2.3.2 From Police ‘Force’ to ‘Service’
In the years before the African National Congress (ANC) governed South Africa, the Police
Service had a different image and culture than it has today. To maintain the segregation ideology, the function of the Police Force was to control society and the use of force was commonplace. The June 1976 Soweto Uprising was the trigger to develop the character of the
South African Police to one of military policing (Hornberger, 2007). This entailed that citizens, who were considered as offenders, became depicted as enemies, which the police officers were allowed to use excessive use of force against (Hornberger, 2007; Marks & Flemming, 2004).
There was also a different treatment applied within the Police for its African and White employees. Just as elsewhere in the country, African and White employees were structurally separated. African police officers had to remain either in a submissive or in a separate position, not comparable to the function of White police officers (Hornberger, 2007). Also within the police training programs, carrying guns and wearing uniforms, issues of promotions, housing subsidies and pensions were areas in which the unequal treatment was maintained. On a linguistic level, only the languages English and Afrikaans were permitted.
After the transition from apartheid to a democracy, radical new policies were introduced which demanded a 180 degree turn in behavioral, cultural and attitudinal levels of the organization (Marks & Fleming, 2004). For the public this meant that the police was now aimed at serving and protecting all members of South African society. For the police officers this meant they had to change their policing style; “from being repressive to tolerant, from reactive to preventive, from confrontational to consensual, and from rigid to flexible” (Della Porter &
Reiter, as cited in Marks & Flemming, 2004). Because of this transition, the profile of the community and the offenders changed from one day to another. However, it is questionable whether this tremendous change had an impact on the culture and linguistic behavior of the police officers themselves.
On the linguistic level, two obvious changes were evident. First, the change of name from
Police Force to Police Service.
Secondly, the number of languages that were permitted to speak within the police stations was increased to eleven. Information about the most recent language
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” policy within the SAPS dates from 2003 and states that each province is obliged to make arrangements that suits that situation (South African Police Service, 2003). Moreover, the language policy states that language equity and language rights should be priority in formulating the provincial language policy. Within the North West Province, the principal language is
Tswana; spoken by 65,4% of the population. The second language is Afrikaans; spoken by 7,5% of the population. Finally there is isiXhosa which is spoken by 5,8% (Government South Africa,
2012). The other 21,3% are divided over English and the other African languages. As Tswana is clearly the largest language in this province, it is remarkable English and Afrikaans are the languages that are assigned as official in the Potchefstroom Police Station. Also, the absence of a provincial language policy in the Potchefstroom Police Station raises serious doubts to what extent measures are taken to enhance equal treatment of African languages (Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa, 1996).
2.4 Daily interactions
The data for this research was sourced from the communication between police officers, police officers and clients, and police officers and offenders. An important asset in communication is the linguistic repertoire a person possesses, and considered important in CDA. In the following paragraph linguistic repertoires were studied. Subsequently, attention was paid to a very specific repertoire in South Africa; White Talk , as this research took place in the North West Province where the majority of the citizens is White, and therefore this topic remains an issue that requires attention.
2.4.1 Linguistic repertoires
The extent to which a person is able to express his- or herself depends on the individuals’ repertoire. A language repertoire is the linguistic resources an individual has learned and acquired throughout his or her life. A linguistic repertoire gives insight into a persons’ background, and how and why (s)he serves in a social arena (Blommaert & Backus, 2011).
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Blommaert (2005) argues inequality enters the picture when studying repertoires. As not everyone has similar means of communication, not everyone will be able to use the same functions of communication. In a police context where power is involved, some individuals will not be able to express themselves because of their repertoires. This is due to restrictions to what individuals can do with and in a language, depending on the composition of their repertoires.
This means that people are not entirely free when they communicate; they are constrained by the range and structure of their repertoires. This study is aimed at finding out what repertoire a police officer uses when (s) he is interacting with clients, customers and offenders, from different ethnicities. An emphasis will be on what language is used by officers towards officers, towards clients who voluntarily enter the police office, or when police officers bring in citizens under arrest.
2.4.2 “ White Talk ”
After the apartheid government collapsed, a time of intense social and psychological adjustment for all South Africans began (Steyn & Foster, 2008). For White South Africans, challenges arose in an environment where political pressures dispute against persistence of the taken-for-granted privileges conferred on them by the white supremacist past (Steyn & Foster, 2008). An alarmingly number of the younger, White South Africans appears to be negative in such a way about the contemporary political situation that they are leaving the country in large numbers
(South African Institution of Race Relations, 2011). However, the elderly South Africans that are staying in the country, resist to certain policies by w hite talk . Noticeably, this does not hold for all of the White South Africans. Nevertheless, there appear to be repertoires that frequently arise in the characteristic way White South Africans talk about issues (Steyn & Foster, 2008). This is in line with what Kamwangamalu (2001) argues, as some of the ‘Afrikaners’ (White South
Africans who speak Afrikaans) do not want to be associated with Afrikaans because of its legacy, and therefore choose to speak the generally appreciated English. However, traces of their roots, even in English, are inevitable. As the province where this research takes place is predominantly White, white talk repertoires will be a point of attention in the analysis.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
2.5 Language policy
Cooper (1996) states that “language planning refers to deliberate efforts to influence the behavior of others with respect to the acquisition, structure or functional allocation of their language codes” (p. 45). Tollefson (as cited in Kroon, 2000) adds that language planning is a tool to locate language in a social structure, so that language determines who has access to political and economic power. Finally, Blommaert (1996) warns that whenever one indulges into language planning, (s) he should be aware of the fact that (s)he indulges into political linguistics. These definitions reveal that language planning or a language policy is a powerful tool from a government to influence society. As mentioned, the South African government has done several attempts to implement language policies; however, no specific language policy appears to be present within SAPS from the outside.
Obviously, tremendous changes have taken place in the South African society after the ending of the apartheid, which has resulted in the entering all of the eleven languages into new contexts as for example schools and universities, the army and workplace settings (Barkhuizen &
De Klerk, 2002). These language developments are, as Blommaert (1996) suggests, natural consequences of sociopolitical changes. The actual implementation of language in daily practice, which should be done by the language planners, lags far behind to the work of politicians
(Barkhuizen & De Klerk, 2002). Throughout the years, it appears that the ‘top-down approach’, which is common for language planning does not work (Webb, 2009). Therefore, the Department of Arts and Culture, which is responsible for the implementation of the national language policy, is turning the situation around. A bottom-up approach is aimed at involving community members and enhancing the participation of citizens in policy decisions and implementation (Keating, as cited in Webb, 2009). Therefore, with this change of direction in policy implementation it is more in the hands of the citizens to make an equal, multilingual society succeed.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
3.1 Research design
The following chapter will provide insight in the methods and instruments applied in this study.
For this research, the instruments that were most fitting to answer the research- and subquestions had an ethnographic nature in a qualitative research framework. Since the goal of the research was to study the linguistic repertoires of police officers when involved with similar and different ethnicities, colleagues and outsiders in daily practice; interviewing and participant observation appeared to be the most suitable. Also, as this research had an explorative nature given that there is little being done in this field, ethnographic research is considered appropriate
(Gellner & Hirsh, as cited in Siebers 2009). Finally, in the words of Blommaert and Jie (2010), ethnography is a matter for conversation and discourse analysis, which was the main source of data for this research.
Within the qualitative framework, this research is a case study (Yin, 1994), as it singles out one particular police station. It appeared that the employee base within each South African police station significantly differs per municipality and province, and this is thus very impactful for the languages that are used. Only an in-depth research within this particular unit of observation is able to reveal the linguistic repertoires of the police officers that are key in understanding linguistic behavior on a micro-level.
Another in-depth method to study linguistic repertoires is shadowing (Czarniawska, 2007,
2008). This entails that one or two key figures would be selected, and they would be followed intensively for a specific period of time. To a certain extent, this method would have been appropriate for this research as well, since this would provide better insight in actual repertoires of a selected group of police officers. With the current used methods less actual repertoires were collected. However, during the data collection it appeared that within the Potchefstroom Police
Station that the opinions about language in the police station are highly divergent, and everyone has their own linguistic behavior. Therefore, narrowing down to only one or two officers when adopting a shadowing approach would do injustice to the diversity amongst the police officers.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Also, a more practical disadvantage of using a shadowing approach would be the language barrier. As it appeared that the most common languages in interactions amongst police officers are Tswana and Afrikaans, this would become difficult to analyse because the researcher is simply not able to understand these languages in such a matter that they can be properly analysed. Also, although the current data collection methods are not entirely aimed at studying repertoires; interviews and participant observation does involve aspects of perception, interpretation, motivation and reflection from the police officers in their choice of language. In the South African context, where the use of a language in itself is already very revealing because of the different images that are adhered to them, this is regarded as an important aspect for this study. To conclude, in CDA Wodak (1999) argues that a CDA offers a diverse picture of methods that can be used as long as it serves the goal of the study. In this study it is highly relevant to get a grasp of how different police members deal with language, and therefore involving a large group of police members is the most appropriate method.
3.2 Sample strategy
This research was conducted in the Potchefstroom Police Station in the North-West Province,
South Africa. As stated earlier, South Africa is a very appropriate country to study language, power and inequality, because of its turbulent past and contemporary struggle to restore inequality, where language is an important indicator. Potchefstroom Police Station is a very suitable research venue in the CDA framework as especially in this region as the segregation between different ethnicities is still very present (Schuermans, 2011).
Initially, the sample strategy for this research was selecting informants through purposive sampling. However, it appeared that the employee base of the Potchefstroom police station did not look as diverse as expected, and a homogeneous group was achieved quickly. Having a homogeneous group is aimed at giving a detailed picture of a social process under study (Ritchie,
Lewis, & Elam, 2010), and is therefore an important detail for this study. Since the purposive sample delivered only a small group of informants, a convenience sampling strategy was used, to
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” involve as much people as possible. Besides enhancing the sample size, another important determinant that contributed to changing the sample strategy of this research was the task divisions amongst the males and females. The task of a police officer exists of patrolling in the streets and attending complaints, or working in the police station behind the complaints desk where clients can make a statement. When the researcher was in the police station to collect data, the male police officers were on patrol and the females were occupying the complaints desk. The reason for this division is that the males are generally physically stronger, and police officers in the street are more likely to be confronted with aggression (SAPS Operational Toolkit). As the
African, male police officers were always working outside the station, it was difficult to reach them, and every opportunity that occurred to interview one had to be taken. Therefore, a convenience sampling method would provide the richest data in this case. A fortunate circumstance for this research was that there are still quite a lot elderly police officers who work in the Potchefstroom Police Station. Due to strict Affirmative Action policies, the majority of
White police officers did not get promoted since 1995, and are therefore still serving the community.
For this study, the decision was made to involve police members only. The reason that outsiders are not being involved has several purposes. First, it would create problems in the definition of the sociocultural space that is focus of this research. Involving actors other than police members would also mean that cultural perceptions of the outsiders have to be considered, and that would change the scope of this research. The police culture that is characteristic for the institutionalized environment this research is taking place should not be affected. Second, the police members are the ones that are in power because they are the police, and this puts them in an authoritative position (Wodak, as cited in Blommaert, 2005). Therefore, the linguistic repertoires they use are considered more relevant for this study than the repertoires of outsiders.
Before the data collection begun, the researcher was aware of the differences in ethnicity, background, and origin between the researcher and the informants. This gap between the actors could influence the trust relation which is required for this type of sensitive research (Arksey &
Knight, 2009). For example, being a woman in a police organization may contribute to a higher
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” level of closure as this is usually a highly masculine institution. In the more specific case of
South Africa, being white might enhance suspicion in an interview with an African police member. Therefore, from a feminist perspective which is suggested by Van Dijk (1993), it is useful to use a semi-structured or unstructured interview approach and ensure high levels of trust and confidence, pay attention to ethical issues, show a great involvement of the researcher to anticipate upon the differences (Riessman, as cited in Arksey & Knight, 2009). These strategies were adopted throughout the entire data collection period by the researcher.
Finally, for this research, it was important to obtain a balanced sample to make comparisons between different ethnicities in the presentation of the results. Therefore, a reflection of the employee base was made in the interview sample size of the police officers.
3.3 Negotiation of access and data collection
Data collection was a process that started with putting the first step in the police station.
However, negotiating access to interviewing and observing in the police officers appeared to be more difficult and time consuming than expected. The SAPS is very sensitive to negative publicity, even more when it concerns unequal treatment of citizens. This is understandable, as the police officers were highly involved in maintaining the apartheid ideology and made it a rule rather than exception to use violence. Today the police officers have the obligation to serve and protect the human rights of society without making a distinction between races (Hornberger,
2007). After being screened and interviewed by several managers on different levels, data collection could finally begin. In the first encounters with police officers, it appeared that neither the police officers nor chief commanders were informed about the presence of the researcher.
This was obstructing the building up a trust relation between the researcher and the police officers. A relationship of trust was important for the interviews and participant observation because this lies at heart of high quality collected data (Schurink, [E.M.] 1998). The researcher introduced herself to as much employees within the police station as possible to reinforce the trust relation. The fact that the researcher was a foreigner contributed to the trust relationship, as
25

“Birds of the same feather flock together” this was a clear signal for the informants that the researcher was not intending to endanger their function within the Service. Next to that, there was often stressed that the participation to this research was not affect their job within the Police Service nor their superiors or anyone else from the Police Service would get insight in the data.
Due to limited access to the police station, only one language channel was included, namely the police officers’ speech. Although this research was aimed at studying language in all its forms, the researcher did not get access to the so-called ‘dockets’, which are the administrative and documentary records of a criminal case (Hornberger, 2007). Consultation of these dockets would give an extra dimension to this study as it could provide insight in the differences used between language as spoken by an offender, and how this is registered in a docket. Therefore, it must be stated that only one language channel was used. On the other hand, observation did give the opportunity to check how events as described by the police officers in the interviews manifest in practice, and which linguistic repertoires are involved.
3.3.1 Participant observation
One of the data collection instruments used was participant observation. The main objective of using this instrument was, in the words of [W.J.] Schurink (1998), “to study the people in their natural habitat or natural setting in order to understand the dynamics of human meanings as fully as possible” (p. 290). Participant observation allowed the researcher to record lived-experiences, taken-for-granted social routines, and provides informal data rather than reified social knowledge
(Gupta & Ferguson, as cited in Hornberger, 2007). In other words, participant observation offered to obtain clear insight in the circumstances languages are reproduced within the police station, and which actors are involved when certain linguistic repertoires occur. As the police members appeared to communicate in predominantly Tswana and Afrikaans amongst each other, a consequence was that only to a limited extent, repertoires could be studied.
The data was collected throughout two weeks, where the researcher entered the police station daily at approximately 7:30 am, and left the building around 2:30 pm. The interviews
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” were conducted between 07:30 am and 10:00 am, as in this time frame it was still quiet in the police station, and the police officers were available for an interview. After every round of interviewing, observation took place from 10:00 am onwards, alternately in the court yard of the station and the complaints office. Because of safety precautions, participant observation took only place within the police station. A limitation that accompanies is that the researcher did not have the opportunity to observe what actually happens when police officers are interacting in the streets. There was one exception, when on a quiet day the researcher got the opportunity to go with two African male police officers on patrol in the iKacheng area (township). Because there was no complaint they had to attend to and there were no incidents during the patrol, no relevant data that concerned interactions with offenders was collected. Another attempt to get a glance of what is happening in the streets was initiated by giving the police officers that were on patrol an audio recorder. Unfortunately, the quality of the audio file was too poor to obtain useful data for this research.
As a method of recording events, field notes were made throughout the entire observation period. The field notes consisted of detailed reproductions of what occurred in reality. These field notes provided ‘raw data’, which eventually complement in the analysis as ‘evidence’
(Blommaert & Jie, 2010). An abstract of the field notes is added in appendix 1.
3.3.2 Interviews
The second research instrument applied in this study was the semi-structured, long ended interview (McCracken, 1988). Semi-structured, long ended interviews give the opportunity to reveal the motivation, beliefs, perspectives of police officers for using language in the police context (Legard, Keegan & Ward, 2010). Also, because the main topics of this research (power and unequal treatment) are highly sensitive in the South African police context, interviews are very appropriate to overcome social desirable answers. Although interviews are not the ideal instrument to get a grasp of one’s linguistic repertoire, the police members did reveal relevant
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” information concerning their perceptions and motivation for language use, which is very suitable for this study.
As stated earlier, to make the interviews successful despite sensitivity of the topic, a trust relation had to be constructed. The following techniques as described by Arksey and Knight
(2009) were applied. Starting every interview with an explanation of the estimated duration of the interview, and what areas were going to be covered. This consisted of a summary of the topic list. Also, in this stage guarantees of confidentiality and anonymity were made. Despite the researcher announced this before the audio recorder was activated, in some interviews the interviewees asked for more confirmation of confidentiality while they were talking about a certain topic. This occurred in interviews with White police officers when subjects as
Affirmative Action Policies and promotions were discussed. These topics appear to be important for the White informants, and therefore will receive extra attention in the results chapter. Going back to the techniques that contributed to enhancing the trust relation with informants; the interviewee was given the opportunity to ask questions about the researcher and the research. In a few cases this led to losing focus of the subject. In turn, after having some small talk during the interview led to more openness and more extensive answers of the interviewees. Another applied technique consisted of the researcher being sensitive to signs of emotional reactions. In some interviews, the participants revealed very sensitive or personal information; themes as death and family issues were discussed. The researcher took the time to talk about these issues, and in all of the cases this strengthened the trust relationship. When the interview was finished, the researcher paid special attention to the finalization of the interview. This consisted of giving the interviewee a feeling of success and indicating how valuable the given answers are for the research. Also, the researcher asked in the finalization of the interviewee was willing to take a look at the transcript for feedback when the interview was transcribed. The majority of the participants were willing to participate in checking their transcript.
To structure the interview, an interview guide was used. The interview guide is added in appendix 2. In the first two interviews, the researcher tried to stay to as close to the interview guide as possible. The other interviews were less structured as the researcher noticed that
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” probing to the answers of the interviewees provided more useful and full answers than staying strictly to the interview guide. As a consequence, not all of the questions are answered in the interviews. However, the researcher ensured the most important topics concerning their perception of-, and motivation for the language they spoke with their colleagues, clients and offenders were discussed. The answers of the interviewees revealed the languages they speak to colleagues, clients, and offenders, their feelings about languages, and how they deal with intercultural encounters. Finally, 17 of the 21 interviews were taped. Apparently, police officers feel that topics as the Affirmative Action policies, and policing during apartheid are too sensitive to be recorded. In those cases, after agreeing with the informants, notes were made of the answers given.
3.4 Data analysis
In CDA data analysis, the researcher is not restricted to one approach; there is room for different analysis tools and methods (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000; Fairclough, 1989; Wodak, 1999).
However, no matter which instrument is used, in CDA the findings are always the interpretations which the researcher finds in a certain context and is guided by his or her personal beliefs, norms and values that mark the interpretation of the data (Habermans, as cited in Wodak, 1999). To operationalize interpretation, Huberman and Miles (as cited in Arksey & Knight, 2009) have listed a number of useful tactics which were embraced for interpreting the data. One of these tactics appeared to be particularly suitable for interpreting the data of this research. This meant that when interviewees denoted an event as common or rare, it was verified how this is conceived by the researcher, and how this influenced the meaning-making of the data.
After the finalization of the data collection, recorded interviews and field notes were transcribed. This resulted in written, raw data, ready for analysis. For the sake of clarity, the second step was reduction of the data by labeling the transcripts according to the open coding method. The aim of this step was to capture the meaning of a fragment in a code, and remain the codes rooted empirically to the data (Boeije, 2010). The applied labels were abstracted from the
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” transcripts, to stay as close to the words of the informants as possible. In this stage, pseudonyms were introduced to enhance confidentiality. While analysing data, it was important to go beyond the words of the informants, and reveal whether, and how dominance and power manifest in the use of a language. This was achieved by being alert to words which imply domination or suppression, for example ‘us’ and ‘them’, ‘force’, and ‘oppressor’. These words contributed in finding out how languages are hierarchically positioned by the police officers. It was in this stage where the combination of interviews and participant observation prove its complimentarily and appropriateness for this research; what was being explained in the interviews could be retrieved in the field notes, and observations could be explained by what was told in the interviews.
During data analysis, the fact that the African and White police members’ perceptions concerning language use within the police environment are quite conflicting came to surface.
Therefore, the researcher decided to separate findings from these groups, which provided a distinct insight in how different ethnicities enhance and maintain ethnic boundaries in society through language.
After the open coding, axial coding took place to make connections between categories and came together in one category, namely ‘how police officers deal with multilingualism in daily interactions’. In this stage, the researcher was enabled to answer the research question and sub-questions, which was a signal that the data analysis was completed.
3.5 Research quality indicators
Reliability and validity in qualitative research are widely debated subjects, as its methods are not as structured as in quantitative research (Ritchie & Lewis, 2010). However, several measures were taken to enhance the quality of this research, which will be presented in this paragraph.
One of the main challenges of this research and its strategy was to avoid social desirable answers and bias, as this was a threat to the reliability of this research. A coping strategy to minimalize this threat was to stress that the researcher is Dutch, and the research was not for the interest of the Police Service. Preceding the interviews, it was stressed that their participation
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” would not affect their job within the Service, and every word they were going to say was going to be processed anonymously and confidential. As the researcher was sensitive for bias and social desirable answers, in some interviews extra effort had to be put in the introduction and making the interviewee feel comfortable. Some small talk about the Netherlands and the researcher’s experience in South Africa generally complied.
The internal validity of this research was enhanced by triangulation of sources and member validation, to ensure that the interview analysis was not biased. Swanborn (2010) argues that diversifying methods of data collection contribute to a higher level of control of data that is gathered with different instruments. Especially in CDA where interpretation is such an important aspect, bias from the researcher is a subject that requires attention. This is anticipated by staying as close as possible to the opinions and beliefs of the informants. Also, making field notes of what occurred in practice was an applied instrument to remain objective throughout data collection (Blommaert & Jie, 2010). Other materials such as the SAPS Operational Toolkit
2
were collected as evidence to strengthen the internal validity of this research.
In four cases, interviewees checked their transcripts to test the validity of the interpretations of the researcher (Swanborn, 2010). Although the interviewees were very willing to help, no new insights were provided and the police officers settled with their former insights.
This was a signal for the researcher that the transcribed data was at that point in time unbiased, and the expressions and feelings of the police officers under study were properly incorporated.
This research is conducted within the SAPS, Potchefstroom. Since this context is very specific, the outcomes of this research will only be to a small extent generalisible to other police stations. This has to do with the specific language pattern that occurred in the Potchefstroom police station, which will differ in any other police station. Therefore, it is an exceptional case, and the external validity of this research remains to be low. However, since this is a case study; generalisability is not the aim of this research. Precisely because the aim of this research is to get
2
The SAPS Operational Toolkit is a manual for police officers to keep with them while they are on duty. This manual contains an overview of how a police officer should behave when involved with clients and offenders.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” a grasp of the motivations, perceptions, and hidden power relations that manifest in language it is thus relevant to focus on a particular case and study this thoroughly.
Finally, the construct validity of this research is ensured by literature study before designing and conducting the study and its research instruments. Also, multiple sources of data were applied, and feedback during research circle meetings and feedback of participants improved the construct validity.
4.1 South African Police Service
The South African Police is notorious for its past as the enforcer of apartheid. Therefore, to win the trust of the South Africans a whole new approach in policing was required when the democratic government was inaugurated. Instead of ‘controlling’, the magic word became
‘serving’ (Hornberger, 2007). Despite this change of strategy, crimes in South Africa remain at extremely high levels. Particularly in the case of serious and violent crimes, such as murder, rape, and robbery (Burger, 2011). Although the total number of murders from 2003 until 2011 decreased from 19824 to 15940 per year, this still means that today, approximately 1328 people are being killed every month (South African Police Service). This number does not even include the number of assaults with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm (which was 198602 in
2011). Sadly, a large number of these killings and assaults are aimed at police members.
Although the Minister of Safety and Security keeps on trying to reduce crime, Bayley (as cited in
Burger, 2011) argues that 80 per cent of the South African crimes have socioeconomic roots over which the police has no control. Therefore, the core of the crime appears to lie in one of the main problems; poverty.
4.2 SAPS Potchefstroom
In Potchefstroom, the police is spread over several buildings. To begin with, there is the
Provincial Office where police members with high ranks are situated. They are responsible for
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” translating the national policies to the North-West Province situation. Secondly, there is the
Police Station where this research is conducted. The Police Station consists of two parts; the old part, which originates from 1920. This has a court yard, and is surrounded by offices from the chief commanders and lieutenants. The radio room and complaints desk are also situated in this part. In the new part of the building which was added in 1995, the offices of the staff members and cluster commander are situated. The Police Station is accessible for citizens. Located next to the Police Station, is the building that accommodates the detectives’ offices and interrogation rooms. The detectives’ bureau is not accessible for citizens, unless under arrest. All of the mentioned buildings are located in the old center of Potchefstroom. Despite the presence of the police station, in this area the majority of the crimes are being committed. These crimes mostly consist of theft, theft of- or from a motor vehicle. The final police building is situated in the
IKacheng Township. The informants revealed that a separate police station for the township is required as this covers a very large area, and the central Police Station is too far away to respond quickly in cases of emergencies.
The Potchefstroom crime rates are a lot lower than the national figures. For example, only
9 murders were committed in 2011 (South African Police Service). In general, contact crimes against a person are low for South African standards. However, property-related crimes are quite high. A reason for this general trend of less criminality in this area is that Potchefstroom is a quite wealthy city and people do not have to steal out of poverty. Yet, since this city is close to the mine area where a lot of immigrants and ‘illegals’ work, and therefore opportunity crimes or
‘petty crimes’ (small, non-violent offences) are commonplace.
4.3 Potchefstroom police officers’ daily function
Police officers in Potchefstroom work in shifts that begin at 07:00 am or 07:00 pm, that lasts 12 hours. A workweek consists of two day- and two night shifts. According to the interviewees, this causes that people get less focused on the end of their shift, and they are more likely to become
‘agitated’. The police officer can either work within the office; which means that he or she is
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” situated behind the complaints desk, doing administrative work, or operate in the radio room. Or, the police officer is working outside, going on patrol and attending complaints. The majority of the police officers are on patrol or attending complaints, as the Potchefstroom police station is serving a big area. This 1200 square kilometer area is divided in three sectors: sector one is the rural area which includes all of the farms. Sector two is the urban area which consists of all of the houses in Potchefstroom, and the third sector is the business sector which is the shopping mall and all of the shops in the neighborhood.
The sort of reports and complaints that are most common in Potchefstroom are robberies, housebreakings, burglaries, theft out of motor vehicles and theft of motor vehicles. In the night time, police officers have to deal with complaints from- and caused by drunken students; as
Potchefstroom is home to a large Afrikaans university campus, which causes restless nights. The police station receives on a daily basis approximately 10 to 15 complaints. For South African standards, there is little violence and aggression where the police officers are confronted with.
Although the SAPS Operational Toolkit dictates that at any place and time, police officers have to wear bullet proof vests; observation revealed that this happens rarely in the Potchefstroom
Police Station.
The following chapter contains an extensive presentation of the findings gathered through the interviews and participant observations, which were analysed and interpreted. Therefore, a short introduction is in place. The first paragraph provides insight in findings concerning the language policy that are relevant for this research. The subsequent paragraph provides a detailed perspective on the ethnic and linguistic diversity that was obtained in the Potchefstroom police station. In the final paragraph, the experiences and observations of how police officers deal with multilingualism were revealed. This macro to micro approach is considered as the most obvious method to reveal the discrepancy between what is considered important by the government, and how this manifests in practice. To prevent confusion in the upcoming paragraphs, the following
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” should be noted; African police members are referred to Black South Africans police officers.
White police officers are logically referred to white, South African police officers, who are also called ‘Afrikaners’. These are the categories that the South African government and police management preserve, and are therefore adopted in this research.
5.1 Language policy within SAPS Potchefstroom
As a first exploration of to find out whether languages are treated equally in the institutionalized environment, a language policy had to be retrieved. This paragraph reveals how the language policy is embedded in the Potchefstroom Police Station.
As stated in the literature chapter of this research, the official website of the SAPS declares the language policy entails that all languages should be treated equally, and everyone should be served or get arrested in his or her own language (South African Police Service, 2003).
Each province should further customize this policy to the needs of its own citizens. Within the
Police Service Potchefstroom there is no official language policy document retrievable.
However, the national office in Pretoria does dictate that all of the police officers on duty have to speak English or Afrikaans. One of the police officers explained the reason for this instruction; these are common languages everyone speaks, and when a dangerous situation occurs, everyone can respond quickly and assist each other. From the results that will be revealed after this paragraph, it appeared that despite this rule, police officers on duty also speak the African language Tswana, and only a few of the African police members are willing to speak Afrikaans.
Bjorn reveals the following concerning the implementation of restricting the languages to
English and Afrikaans only.
“We tried to force it through.. But still they are talking in their own language so.. But we do mind it when something happens and they start getting excited and speak in their own language, then.. They must speak English if they want to get help..” [Bjorn, April 3, 2012, interview]
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
This quote clearly shows that the police management is aware of the ‘violation’ of the language policy and its consequences, but it not capable of offering a solution.
Another remarkable finding concerning language policy is related to the name of the
Police, namely; Service. Two elderly white police officers still used the word police force instead of service . This is noteworthy as the post-apartheid government deliberately chose the name police service, as force is aligned with the apartheid policing where they aimed at keeping control, and service is aligned with caring for the citizens. If a police officer still relates their role as one of control, this is an alarming signal because this can have serious consequences for the equal treatment of citizens.
5.2 Ethnic diversity within SAPS Potchefstroom
In the following table, the most recent figures of the Potchefstroom Police Service personnel base will be revealed. These figures include employees with administrative jobs who are located in the police station. The figures are retrieved from the HR department.
Male Female Total
African
Indian
121
0
66
0
187
0
Colored
White
6
36
2
14
8
50
Total 163 82 245
Table 1.1 Personnel Base SAPS Potchefstroom
From table 1.1, two interesting findings come forward, concerning the diversity within the
Potchefstroom police station. Women are quite highly represented. Furthermore, the majority of the police officers are African, and there is only a little number of White officers despite the fact that Potchefstroom is a predominantly White area. This is important to keep in mind for this research as more ethnic diversity within the personnel base would provide more insight in the experiences of different ethnic groups, and how they use their linguistic repertoires. Two
36

“Birds of the same feather flock together” explanations can be given for this diversity pattern. First, since the inauguration of the democratic government, much effort was made to restore equality in society. During the apartheid, jobs for the African population were difficult to obtain. Therefore the new government imposed Affirmative Action policies throughout governmental and non-governmental organizations, to support the disadvantaged Africans to get easy access to jobs. These
Affirmative Action policies still hold for the Police Service, meaning that Africans, woman, and people with disabilities have an advantage when applying for a job (Employment Equity Act,
1998). The second explanation for why there is relatively little diversity within the
Potchefstroom Police Service (there are no Indian employees and a little number of Coloreds), has a geographical reason. Again, during the apartheid, the former government was trying to separate people from different races into different regions. This had to do with the apartheid ideology; which shortly put contained that different races could not live together, and therefore need to be segregated from each other. The North West Province, where Potchefstroom is one of the main cities, was ‘assigned’ to the White South Africans. Today South Africans still live very much according to this distinction, and the majority of the White population remained in this area.
Finally, one remark has to be made concerning the fact that the government still divides its employees in racial groups just as how they were known during the apartheid. Despite race or ethnicity should not make a difference anymore, the current government still applies the same distinction as its predecessors. Within a governmental organization this is an alarming signal, and it is questionable whether there is not some kind of ‘reversed racism’ going on. By continuing to make distinctions between ethnicity, exclusion and unequal treatment is more likely to emerge.
5.3 Ethno-linguistic diversity within SAPS Potchefstroom
The most important topic of this research is obviously the language spoken by the police officers.
Therefore, an inventory is made of the languages that occur within the police station. Because
37

“Birds of the same feather flock together” there is no official record of this, results from the interviews and observation were used as source.
There are two languages appointed as official by the national office in Pretoria; English and Afrikaans. In the police station, three dominating languages in interactions were observed.
English; an official language assigned by the national office, which was used as a medium of communication between police officers-, police officers and clients-, and police officers and offenders of different ethnic groups. The second language is Tswana; the home language of the majority of the African police officers. Tswana was spoken between police officers-, police officers and clients-, and police officers and offenders of the same ethnic group. Finally, the smallest yet official language assigned by the national office of the police station; Afrikaans.
This language was also used between colleagues-, clients-, and offenders of the same and different ethnic groups. As revealed in the literature chapter, the majority of the citizens in the
North West Province speak Tswana, and information on the national Police website states that each province has to adjust to the linguistic needs of that province. It seems that this ideology is not being met here. Beside these most common languages, the researcher came across a range of other South African languages as well which were spoken in the Potchefstroom Police Station. In the following table all of the languages that police officers speak are displayed. Besides that, the names (pseudonyms), age, ethnic background, and career of the interviewees are revealed.
38

“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Name (sexe) Age Ethnic Background Career (years within SAPS) Linguistic repertoire (home language=hl)
Mildred (F) 19
Bolanle (F) 28
Herman (M) 43
Jan (M)
Kalifa (F)
52
32
Adia (F)
Stanley (M)
27
42
Raymond (M) 29
Jonah (M) 32
Hanna (F)
Andre (M)
51
45
Stefan (M)
Adebi (M)
32
53
Karl (M)
Gamba (M)
Issay (M)
Joanne (F)
Mark (M)
38
23
45
38
53
Colored
African
White
White
African
African
African
African
African
White
White
White
African
White
African
African
White
White
Constable; in training (0,5) Afrikaans (hl), English, Tswana
Constable (8) Tswana (hl), English, Xhosa, Zulu
Constable, Sergeant,Warrant (19) Afrikaans (hl), English, Fanagolo
Constable, Sergeant, Warrant (28) Afrikaans (hl), English
Constable (7) Zulu (hl), Xhosa, Tswana, English , Afrikaans
Constable, Sergeant (9) Tswana(hl), Xhosa, Zulu, Sesothu, English, Afrikaans
Constable, […], Lieutenant
3
(25) Tswana (hl), Sesothu, Xhosa, English, Afrikaans
Constable, Sergeant (7)
Constable, Sergeant (9)
Tswana (hl), Xhosa, English
Tswana (hl), Zulu, Xhosa, English, Afrikaans
Administrative (21) Afrikaans (hl), Dutch, German, Latin, Tswana
Constable, Sergeant, Warrant (21) Afrikaans (hl), English, Tswana
Constable (11)
Constable, cell guard (21)
Afrikaans (hl), German, English
Tswana (hl), Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa
Constable, Sergeant (9)
Constable (2)
Constable, Sergeant (28)
Constable (7)
Afrikaans (hl), English
Tswana (hl), Xhosa, Sesothu, Afrikaans, English
Tswana (hl), English, Afrikaans
Afrikaans (hl), English
Constable, […], Brigadier (30) Afrikaans (hl), English, Tswana
Albert (M)
Hans (M)
Eshe (F)
Bjorn (M)
72
52
35
42
White (British)
White
African
White
Community worker (4) English (hl), Afrikaans
Constable, […], Lieutenant(32) Afrikaans (hl), English
Constable, Sergeant (9)
Constable (22)
Tswana (hl), Zulu, Xhosa, English, Afrikaans
English (hl), Afrikaans
Henri (M) 50 White Constable, […], Lieutenant (27) Afrikaans (hl), English
Table 1.2 Background information interviewees
3
Ranks from lowest to highest: Constable, Sergeant, Warrant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier (South
African Police Service, n.d.).
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
As displayed in table 1.2, much more languages than just English and Afrikaans are used in the
Potchefstroom Police Station. One language that requires further explanation is Fanagolo (Bold,
1990). This language is not recognized as official in the South African Constitution, and spoken in a particular context:
“I can Afrikaans, English, and I can speak Fanagolo. Fanagolo is the language.. It is not an official language. It is the language we use in the mines. It is from the workers.”
[Herman, March 27, 2012, interview]
Herman learned this language because workers in the mines close to Potchefstroom do not speak
English, Afrikaans or any other of the official African languages. Therefore, the parties involved
‘created’ a language which is understandable for everyone and makes communication possible.
Beside the fact that all of these different languages can cause miscommunication in general, within this context there appears to be an extra dimension that creates a bigger problem concerning the languages. There is the legacy of apartheid, which causes that some people do not want to speak a certain language, which enhances an environment of inclusion and exclusion within the police station. An elaboration is provided in the following paragraph.
5.4 Multilingualism in the Potchefstroom police environment
The next section reveals how multilingualism is experienced and being dealt with by
Potchefstroom police officers. The data revealed that there are two evident areas where problems with multilingualism occurred. First, in the police station in communication between colleagues from different ethnicities. Secondly, in interactions in the complaints desk where the clients come to make a statement, complaint, or certify documents. As mentioned, African and White police officers appeared to have different viewpoints when considering speaking a certain language within the police context. Therefore, a distinction was made between Africans and
Whites in the results acquired from interviews and participant observations.
40

“Birds of the same feather flock together”
5.4.1 Communication with colleagues
Africans
African or white, all of the police officers recognized that communication is an important aspect of their work, as they have to work in a team to combat crime. However, it appeared that in practice communication is complicated. One of the reasons is that the majority of the African police members speak Tswana in their working environment. The young, African generation
‘flock’ together, which caused that exclusion is more likely to manifest, and where proficiency of
Tswana is the distinctive factor. Even though police members are not allowed to speak this language within the Potchefstroom Police Station, during the observation this happened frequently. Kalifa, an African female explained why she speaks Tswana with her African colleagues in the working environment.
“We come from apartheid.. So we know how it feels, like, for one language to be official.
No, it is pretty bad.. It is one of our rights to speak our own language you see.” [Kalifa,
March 28, 2012, interview]
As mentioned earlier, with the inauguration of the democratic government eleven languages became official. Tswana is one of them, so now it is the right of the Tswana speaking population to communicate in their own language, and that it is treated respectfully. Because it is their right to speak their own language, and Afrikaans is the ‘language of the oppressor’, the Africans prefer to avoid speaking this language. Remarkably, the elderly African police officers seemed to have fewer problems with this, as they were willing to ‘accommodate’ their White colleagues in
Afrikaans. Apparently, it is the younger generation that grew up with the ANC as government that is more resolute in claiming their rights, than the elderly police officers who, to a certain extent, stick to their submissive role that they were assigned to during apartheid. This is a more general observation that appeared from the observations; the young, African generation is very
‘present’, and the elderly African police members are keeping themselves more ‘low profile’.
Adia is a young African police officer and explained she wants to use Tswana permanent, and not compromise in any way.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
“That is OUR language... We don’t mix. We don’t speak any other language, except that one.” [Adia, March 28, 2012, interview]
The use of the deictic ‘our’ is a rather strong expression of ethnic affiliation. From the observation appeared that the majority of the African police members are also willing to speak
English in their working environment. These are the officers that are more likely to speak
Tswana occasional instead of permanent. Another African female, Bolanle, gave her motivation for why she and her colleagues speak Tswana in their working environment.
“Ja it is very difficult. When you are angry you just want to talk your language.. And express yourself.” [Bolanle, March 26, 2012, interview].
This implied that this interviewee, just as the majority of the African police members, want to use Tswana occasional when they want to express something in particular, in this case when she loses her temper. In line with the occasional use of Tswana, from the observation appeared that especially in informal settings the African police officers speak their home language. For example, while the researcher was interviewing a white female, Hanna, two of her African colleagues entered the office. One of them asked Hanna a question, which she answered. After answering it, her colleagues started discussing something in Tswana. Hanna initiated some attempts to get involved in the conversation again, but her colleagues ignored her. This is a scenario where a colleague was excluded by language without serious consequences. However, in the radio room, where the police officers communicate with their colleagues in the vehicles outside, talking Tswana did appear to have serious consequences. For example, when a police officer in the field calls for assistance in Tswana, and there are two white police officers in the radio room who cannot understand what the police officer is asking for, life threatening situations might emerge. Apparently, the use of an African language appears in this context to be more important than serving a uniform target, which is protecting and serving society. This trend of putting human rights over security seems to be applicable to a wider context in South Africa, as in every public area human rights are an unavoidable topic. After the ending of the apartheid and under the leading of Nelson Mandela restoring equality in society became a top priority of the government. However, human rights and equal treatment are considered of such importance
42

“Birds of the same feather flock together” that other matters which are crucial in managing a country are being moved to the background.
With this in mind, it is understandable that the African police members want to speak Tswana in their working environment, as expressing themselves in their own language is their right.
Whites
As in the rest of the country, the Whites are a minority in the Potchefstroom police station. From observations appeared that the African and White officers are more likely to flock to their similar ethnic colleagues than they mix, unless this is required for fulfilling their duties. As Joanne explained;
“Because there are so little white.. Afrikaans speaking people.. Like the saying goes;
“Birds of the same feather flock together”, we speak Afrikaans.. So when it is break times.. You sit together. And the Tswana speaking people, and the Suthu’s, and the
(…Pedi’s…).. They group together..” [Joanne, April 2, 2012, interview]
One of the reasons this happens is because of the language difference. A quote of Jan, an elderly white male illustrates what consequences his African colleagues speaking Tswana while they are on duty.
“Yeah the whole language barrier.. It is a big problem.. Like I said, if someone doesn’t speak Afrikaans or English, I don’t assist them [African colleagues].” [Jan, March 27,
2012, interview]
This is an example of how language can enhance exclusion. To a certain extent, Jan excludes all of the Tswana speaking police members of cooperating with them. From the interviews appeared that in general, the White colleagues prefer to speak Afrikaans during their work as it is their home language and it allows them to speak freely. However, most of them do not have a problem to compromise in English. The following statement, provided by Henri, an elderly white male, illustrates this.
“I am borne and bread, they call us the ‘boerkes’, I am a true patriot in Afrikaans, so that is my mother language. I was brought up in that language and I prefer to speak
43

“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Afrikaans.[…] But if we must go to work, you change that attitude.” [Henri, April 4,
2012, interview]
Even though Henri admits he is a truly patriotic Afrikaner, he does not mind to change this attitude in the working environment and speak English. Jan, on the other hand does not tolerate any other language than the ones that are introduced as official within the Potchefstroom police station. From the interview with Henri appears that he is a police officer out of passion, and it gives him fulfillment to help people from his community in his daily work. He is a supervisor of a shift of 28 police members, in which 25 Tswana speaking officers work. He is aware that some of his colleagues speak Tswana in the working environment but does not seem to be affected by this, as all of his African colleagues speak English to him. Jan, on the other hand, claims he is
‘condemned’ to an office job since the change of government in 1994. Before his current job he was a detective in the Murder and Robbery unit, a very dynamic job which Jan really enjoyed to perform. Because that job ‘mysteriously’ disappeared with the change from police force to police service, Jan ended up behind a desk and becomes less motivated every day. The fact that his
African colleagues being promoted to high ranks in a short time very much contributes to this.
On top of this, his African colleagues speak Tswana, a language that is officially not allowed within the police station, without facing any consequences. These aspects provide insight in the contexts where two elderly white police officers create different views on language use within the police station. Another interesting difference aspect is that Henri is a supervisor. Apparently, for the Tswana speaking police officers this makes a difference as they speak English to Henri, but do not bother to when Jan is around. This implied that the Tswana police officers are aware of the fact that they are not allowed to speak ‘their’ language in the police station, and avoid doing this to their supervisors.
In line with Jan, Bjorn explained he is fed up with his African colleagues speaking
Tswana. He feels excluded and restricted in his work when his colleagues are speaking another language.
44

“Birds of the same feather flock together”
“Especially when they are in a group or something.. Ja.. And sometimes you can hear that they are talking about you or something, and then you try to talk to them, but they just talk on in their own language.. Ja..” [Bjorn, April 4, 2012, interview]
This contributes to how the White police officers, who are a minority already, are more and more restricted in their work because of the language differences.
The change from apartheid to democracy was also by the White police officers experienced as a positive change, and the majority of them are positive towards the official status of eleven languages. However, due to the Affirmative Action policies that are accompany this transition, their rights changed. From interviews and observations can be interpreted that the
White police members feel they are in some areas being discriminated. For example, because of the Affirmative Action policies, it is very difficult for White South Africans to obtain a job. The majority of the elderly White members clearly expressed their dissatisfaction on the current state of affairs considering promotions. Also, the Whites have to be very careful in their choice of words, because if something is interpreted in a racist way by an African colleague, this could bring the White police members in a difficult position. Two elderly white males stated that they have to be very cautious about the words they use, as there appears to be a lot of metaphors in
Afrikaans. For example, in the morning when Henri was instructing his team, he used the word
‘witch hunt’, as he was explaining about a suspect their had to track down. Immediately, he notices amongst his African colleagues that they are distracted by this word, as Henri explained later, they literally think they are going to hunt on a witch. Especially when in some cases the
White police members are communicating in Afrikaans to the African members, this becomes even more complex. It is not only distraction what the metaphors bring along, also insults are lurking. As Mark explains, he is a supervisor and called one of his female African team members once ‘meid’. In Afrikaans, this is nothing but a young female. However, in the apartheid days, a
‘maid’ was an African woman who was serving in the household of a white family. The African female assumed he meant the negative connotation and ignored him for the rest of the day.
Luckily he was able to sort things out later onwards with his colleague. Yet, this example revealed how careful the White members must be when they are communicating with their
45

“Birds of the same feather flock together”
African colleagues. It can be stated that the White police officers have to use a different repertoire when they are communicating with different ethnicities. In the repertoire that they use when African colleagues are involved, it means that they have to step away from their own linguistic habits, and communicate in a plain and clear manner. With the young African members on the other hand who sometimes not even put effort in speaking English and stick to Tswana, and the elderly White members who have to put a lot of effort in adjusting, it is understandable they feel frustrated. In general, although the African and White South Africans have equal rights, it is experienced by the White police members that the rights of the Africans are more important.
In an off the record interview, one White police officers stated that it feels like the majority of the Africans are now taking revenge for the injustice that was done to them during the apartheid.
As stated earlier, some of the elderly African police members are willing to communicate
Afrikaans to their White colleagues. Two of the interviewed white police officers stated that they feel lucky when this happens; as they have the feeling they are limited when they have to do their work in another language. Also, Afrikaans has the negative image of the ‘oppressor’s language’, one of the white police officers explained. When an African colleague is willing to use Afrikaans on their own initiative, it really feels like they are leaving the past behind and moving forward.
From another viewpoint, it can also be argued that the African police member speaking
Afrikaans to his white colleague maintains the apartheid segregation.
The African and White police officers speaking different languages within the police station appeared to affect the safety police officers can provide for themselves and society. One particular aspect mentioned by African and White police officers, is that quite often Tswana is spoken over the police radio. This does not immediately imply there is a problem, but it becomes dangerous when a vehicle is in a threatening situation and calls for assistance. An Afrikaans speaking police officer in the radio room cannot understand the message in Tswana and cannot send the required back-up. In a worst case scenario, lives are at stake. While the African police officers came across as rather nonchalant about them speaking Tswana over the police radio, the
White police members were more aware of the dangerous consequences this includes.
To summarize this paragraph, multilingualism is experienced as problematic in
46

“Birds of the same feather flock together” communication between the African and White police officers. Although there is a language instruction from the national police office, the African police members stick to their own language, which causes frustration amongst the White officers. On top of that, the home language of the Whites is stigmatized as ‘the language of the oppressor’, which makes their daily work even more complicated.
5.4.2 Communication with outsiders
Africans
It is the responsibility of the Police Service Potchefstroom to create a safe and secure environment for all of the people in its community (SAPS Operational Toolkit). To achieve this, a lot of interaction is required between the members of the police station and the community.
Also in this area, the Potchefstroom police members experience difficulties. Especially the work of the African members was influenced by interaction with the community. Firstly, the task division which causes that mainly African females are working behind the complaints desk requires explanation. When a police officer is on patrol, according to the Potchefstroom Police management, one is more likely to get in touch with aggression and physical assault. Because the male police members are in general perceived physically stronger, they are considered fitter for this work. The female police officers are therefore more likely to be situated behind the complaints desk. As the African women are much more represented in the police statistics than
White women, the common profile of a police officer in the complaints desk is a young, African woman. The core of this problem lies in the fact that the community the police officers are serving is predominantly white and Afrikaans speaking, and the police officers are African,
Tswana speaking. Again, here comes the struggle that both of these groups want to speak their own language and the apartheid legacy is involved.
“Some people.. Most of the Afrikaans people [clients] are difficult.. Not all of them, but most of them.. But then we say, let’s compromise.. Use Afrikaans here and there, so I can understand you.. Some of them say no I only speak Afrikaans.. With that.. Not nicely.. We
47

“Birds of the same feather flock together” are human also.. I also have a feeling as he has a feeling.. But I just HAVE to be there, they don’t.. Even if you explain “please stay calm”, but sometimes it is very very badly..”
[Eshe, April 3, 2012, interview]
In line with the picture Eshe illustrated, from the interviews appeared that all of the African colleagues who also work in the complaints office agree with her and have their experiences with such events. This is also in line with what the researcher noticed while observing in the complaints desk. Interestingly, Eshe recognized that a large number of the White clients stick to
Afrikaans, even though she and her African colleagues are facing the consequences for that.
However, she and the majority of her African colleagues ignore the fact to that they are doing the exact same thing to their White colleagues.
An illustration of how Eshe’s quote manifests in practice occurred while the researcher was observing in the complaints desk. An elderly, white man, a typical Afrikaner, entered the complaints desk and first checked all of the seven counters, probable to check whether there was a white police officer on duty. As this was not the case, he decided to go to the first police officer available. He approached a young, African female in Afrikaans and she responded in English.
The client hands in a form and continues to speak in Afrikaans. Apparently, it concerns a complaint form that another police officer filled in in English, but the client does not agree with its content. The client wants to fill in another form in Afrikaans. As the police officer tries to explain something in Afrikaans, the client clearly becomes impatient and starts talking through the police officer. In the meanwhile, they start to draw the attention of other police officers, and another female who is sitting behind the counter came to assist. The assisting officer responds in
Afrikaans to the client, and he is in turn lowering his voice. If there was no language barrier, this sort of disturbances would not occur in the police station, and this would save a lot of time for the police members. In the described example it is questionable whether the police officer is unable to speak Afrikaans, or simply does not want to. Mildred, a female police student in the police station revealed the following.
“My first language is Afrikaans, but I can’t speak it properly [smiles]. But I can speak it,
I do understand it.. And… But just sometimes I struggle with it because Afrikaans is
48

“Birds of the same feather flock together” sometimes.. You know.. A little difficult for me. I grew up with English, but my mother my father they speak pure Afrikaans, but I grew up with English. So you know, I never take
Afrikaans very seriously.” [Mildred, March 26, 2012, interview]
This interviewee distinguished between ‘pure’ Afrikaans and Afrikaans. This implies that she distinct different sorts of repertoires in Afrikaans. Apparently, she does not speak ‘pure’
Afrikaans because she grew up with English. Even though it is the language her parents speak, she does not take it seriously and is currently learning to speak Tswana, as she considers this language more useful. The fact that she tells she does not take Afrikaans very seriously does strengthen the argument of the White police officers that their African colleagues just do not want to speak it because this language carries a legacy.
To summarize, the interaction between the African police officers and clients appeared to entail difficulties from both sides, as both ethnic groups want to speak their own language. A consequence is that the police officers’ possibilities to serve the community is threatened as the language barrier costs a lot of extra time to deal with complaints, and it is inefficient to keep the
Afrikaans speaking police officers from their other work when they have to assist at the complaints desk all the time. In the meanwhile, crimes keep on being committed and there are less police officers to place outside.
Whites
The communication between White police officers and the community is not experienced as problematic as communication between African officers and community members. The most obvious reason is that the community members also have Afrikaans as their home language, and this is for both parties the language of preference. However, the White police officers are also affected by the difficult interaction as described in the former paragraph. As the White members are being kept of their tasks if communication is escalating in the complaints office, or when they have to assist outside the station. This costs precious time and causes difficulties achieving their daily targets. Henri, an elderly white police officer, told that he is bothered in his work by clients that want to be helped in Afrikaans. He often tries to assist the police officers working
49

“Birds of the same feather flock together” behind the complaints desk as much as possible; unfortunately, he is not always in that position.
Henri illustrated;
“But now, most of the clients, and I talk about the clients that come here, demand to speak in Afrikaans. And unfortunately; yes, the people [African police members] can’t help them.” [Henri, April 4, 2012, interview].
Again, as assisting his African colleagues in serving the White community members takes a lot of time, which the police members should spend on combatting crime. Another white police officer, Hans, recognizes this and reveals that when entering the Police Service you must be able to speak Afrikaans.
“Ja because it is young members.. Ja.. If you apply in the police.. Then you must.. How do you say.. Ja Afrikaans and English. But as soon as they are members, and they have a position in the police.. Then they have a problem with Afrikaans.” [Hans, April 3, 2012, interview]
He specifically mentions the younger members as the ones that have the problem with Afrikaans.
It is confirmed during the observation, that elderly African police officers still speak Afrikaans, but the younger generation does not.
Beside the flawless communication between White police officers and the White community, the White police members do seem to experience difficulties in interaction with
African outsiders. Especially the African offenders are perceived to make the White police officers’ work more difficult. This concerns the immigrants from Mozambique, Nigeria and
Botswana. One of the White interviewees explained that since Potchefstroom is close to the border and there is a mine area around the city where these immigrants work, it is an attractive target for opportunistic crimes. If the police officers manage to arrest these immigrants, they experience difficulties because of a language barrier. According to the White police officers this has to do with the fact that many of the immigrants from other African countries who commit a crime, have no or minimal education, and only speak their home language. For example
Mozambiquans speak Portuguese, and minimal English. This causes that that the White police officers sometimes have to change the sequence in an arresting procedure because they simply
50

“Birds of the same feather flock together” cannot why they are arresting the suspect. This means that they first have to bring the suspect to the police station, and then they can enable an official interpreter or other colleagues to translate.
Bjorn, an elderly white male explained;
“But if they speak something else when we take them to the back to the cells the guys over there help us with the language barrier. We explain to them what is happening and we explain what he did wrong.. And there is a form he has to fill in and sign, so they explain to him then.” [Bjorn, April 4, 2012, interview]
This is a clear example of being able to speak a certain language can create inequality. In this case, if a person does not speak English or one of the common African languages the offender cannot discuss the situation and cannot fight his arrest. Only after the offender is already being put in the police cell he is informed about his or her rights, and (s)he can sign for knowing and understanding these rights. When this happens, the offender often takes this to court, which serves the offender with a lighter punishment, because the arrest did not go according to the normal procedure. In turn, an offender not being punished but released because of a language barrier, revealing again in this context multilingualism can endanger society.
6.1 Conclusions
In the former chapter the results of this research were presented. Based on these findings, a number of conclusions can be drawn which answer this research’ main question; How do police officers from SAPS Potchefstroom deal with multilingualism in daily interactions?
In the following paragraphs this question is answered by continuing to adapt a approach that moves from macro to micro; from language policy to actual interaction between police officers and interaction between police officers and outsiders from similar and different ethnicities.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
6.1.1 Language policy
From the findings in the previous chapter, a number of conclusions on three different levels can be drawn concerning the language policy. On the South African level, on the SAPS level, and on the Potchefstroom Police level.
When going to the language policy on the state level, one is going into politics
(Blommaert, 1996). In the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), it is clearly formulated that the eleven official languages should be treated equally and positive measures should be taken to enhance this. Earlier research revealed that the implementation of this right is not as easy as mentioning official languages in the constitution (Beukes, 2009; Ngcobo, 2009;
Webb, 1999; Webb; 2009). From this research appeared that the Department of Arts and Culture is still not managing to bring equal treatment into practice, as there appeared that Tswana is formally not retrievable in the institutionalized Potchefstroom police environment. Although the national language planners changed their strategy and involved citizens in language planning with a ‘bottom-up’ approach (Webb, 2009), Tswana is still not officially recognized and used in the Potchefstroom Police Station.
The second level which influences the language policy is the SAPS. In their language policy is again stated that language rights are essential and everyone should be served in his or her own language (South African Police Service, 2003). Although it appeared that interpretation services are available for offenders, regularly incidents seem to occur where communication with offenders is thus problematic that he or she can get a sentence reduction because during the arrest was deviated from the official procedure. Also, the national office instructs that Afrikaans and
English should be the working languages. This is a remarkable decision as official figures revealed that the majority; 65,4%, of the North West Province speaks Tswana, only 7,5% speaks
Afrikaans, and English is even smaller (Government South Africa, 2012). Also, the figures concerning ethnic background of the Potchefstroom Police members reveal that the majority of the officers are African. Therefore, from this research can be concluded what is in line with
Barkhuizen & De Klerk, 2002, Beukes, 2004, and Webb, 1999, that in this institutionalized context, the African languages are being marginalized.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Finally, there is the level of the Potchefstroom Police Station. This contains a high degree of self-management. Although the national office instructs two languages, according to the language policy each province should customize this policy (South African Police Service,
2003). To a certain extent, offering interpreter service is meeting this instruction, however, amongst the police members multilingualism is problematic and it seems no action is taken upon this issue. Also, the clients that come to the Potchefstroom police station to make a statement are a victim of the non-customized language policy. From this research appeared that the new policy implementation approach does not seem to work in the Potchefstroom police station, as the languages that are recognized as official appear to be an unbalanced reflection of the language spoken by the police members and its community.
6.1.2 Interactions between police officers
In the results section the problems with multilingualism between police officers were revealed.
To start with, it appeared that the most common languages; Afrikaans, English and Tswana, enhance different power relations in the police environment. For example, the Tswana speaking police members have the power to include or exclude their White coworkers on the basis of the language they use. More important, in dangerous situations when assistance is required, the
African police members have the final call in including or excluding ‘the others’.
Despite the Constitution (1996) claims that every South African should be allowed to speak in his or her mother tongue, within the police station this is for safety reasons restricted to two common languages. However, the African police members refuse to obey this rule, and stick to their own language with all its consequences. On the one hand, this is their right. On the other hand; interviews and participant observations revealed that the African members are discriminating the Afrikaans speaking colleagues because of their language. As Afrikaans is stigmatized as ‘language of the oppressor’, they refuse to speak this, and ignore it. In the words of African police officer Mildred; they do not take Afrikaans seriously. In this respect, the right of equal treatment of different languages is violated. There must be added that this described
53

“Birds of the same feather flock together” behavior is predominantly attributable to the younger generation of African police officers.
Ignoring and rejecting certain languages also contribute to what Kamwangamalu (2001) explains the social identity construction of the Afrikaners. In that matter, this research is a start for further research to language and identity construction in a South African institutionalized context.
As CDA states, the use of a certain discourse can either contribute to maintain or change power relations in society. In the South African context the first striking characteristic of the discourse is what language is being used, because of the images that the different languages carry. Despite Afrikaans and English are the official languages in the Potchefstroom police station, Tswana was perceived to be spoken in the same amount as English. The African police members are clearly the ones that are in power, and are dominating the White police members.
By speaking Tswana, they take power into their own hands to exclude their colleagues, by simply speaking a language ‘the others’ do not understand. Taking and maintaining power through language and how this enhances inequality is in line with what Blommaert (2005),
Fairclough (1989), and Wodak (1999) describe as the core of CDA. This means that language ideologies and ideologies driven language hierarchies are at the core of how people use and understand their social practices, and hence also the structures of text and talk (Van Dijk, 1993).
This is in line with what happened in the police station under study. The contemporary South
African ideology entails that human rights are essential values in this country and everyone is free and equal. The African police members seem to translate this in such a way that the right of speaking their own language is more important than fulfilling their job properly. Therefore, their choice of language which is condoned by the police management appears to coincide with the ideology of the country, otherwise, and especially in a institutional environment, this would not be tolerated. For the White members this means that they need to watch from the sideline, while their colleagues are making it more difficult for them to fulfill their duties. In short, this means that inequality is created amongst the police members on the one hand because of the overt strict
Affirmative Action Policies, and on the other hand because of the covert rules of ideology. A consequence of the ‘self management language policy’ from the African side is that there is clearly a division between the African police members that ‘flock’ together and the White
54

“Birds of the same feather flock together” members that group. The fact that the different ethnicities and languages isolate can contribute to even more suspicion amongst each other and enhances exclusion. Again, ethnicity and language appear to be the distinctive features for this segregation. A clear conclusion that can be drawn is that police members use different linguistic repertoires when they are involved with colleagues from other ethnicities. The first clear indicator for this is that they have to use a common language, namely English. This is the medium that everyone speaks, and is willing to speak.
Although it appeared that a number of African police members are also able to speak Afrikaans, they are not willing to use this because of its legacy. For the White police members it means that they had to adjust their repertoire even more, as their home language is full of metaphors.
Therefore, they cannot literally translate their language to English and have to be careful they do not unintentionally insult their colleagues. Then there appears to be another repertoire that the
Afrikaners seem to use; white talk. According to Steyn and Foster (2008), this involves specific repertoires in which the White South Africans indirectly express their dissatisfaction about the current government and its racially infused policies. Although it was unfortunately not possible to study specific repertoires in this research, in the interviews with White police officers they appeared to occasionally give an example of white talk , by not directly complaining about the current state of affairs but arguing that ‘times changed’ and specifically not mentioning something. This contributes to answering the question how police officers deal with daily interactions from the White perspective. As they have to be cautious about criticizing their
African colleagues, they do feel the need to express their critique in some kind of way, and therefore ‘create’ their own, ‘secret’ linguistic repertoire. In two cases, white talk was very evident, where elderly White officers referred to police force instead of service . Such a slip of the tongue or a deliberate appellation reveals that although the organization and its goal dramatically changed, in the mind of the police officer there is still a legacy of the history.
On a more general level, the following conclusion can be drawn about interactions between police officers from the Potchefstroom Police Station. Although all of the
Potchefstroom police officers appeared to be passionate about combating crime, to make this work a change in attitude is required, and suspicion amongst each other should be changed to an
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” cooperative spirit between African and White police officers. On a more national level, to make equal treatment work in South African society, everyone needs to put the past behind them and focus on a mutual goal to improve the living conditions of every South African citizen. This does not mean that this have to go to the detriment of recognizing different cultures and languages, but a change of attitude is essential.
6.1.3 Interactions between police officers and outsiders
As described in the results, in interactions between police officers and outsiders (clients and offenders) there appeared to be difficulties in policing in a multilingual environment. With a
White community to serve and African police members who refuse or cannot speak Afrikaans; a complex problem emerged. Within the walls of the Potchefstroom Police station the African members are the majority and seem to be in charge. However, in the complaints desk where they have to interact with the community on the other side it seemed the roles changed.
CDA claims that power relations in an institutionalized environment are natural and in this case the client or offender is submissive (Wodak, as cited in Blommaert, 2005). However, from the results appeared that the White Potchefstroom citizens can be powerful to the extent that they can complain about unequal treatment because of not being helped in the language they understand, and for the offenders this could mean a reduction of their sentence. A reason for this shift in power can be that the SAPS is highly aimed at serving the community, and complaints about unequal treatment could mean bad publicity for the Potchefstroom Police Station. By now it was proven more than one that the last thing the SAPS wants is negative publicity. However, how many people actually make a complaint about treatment in the police station is hard to retrieve. As no serious actions are taken upon this by the management it is questionable whether these are serious accusations.
A concept that emerged in the police – outsiders interaction was dangerous multilingualism, here understood in that while there is tolerance at interlinguistic level, there is less tolerance at intra-linguistic level. If an individual uses a foreign language in an
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” institutionalized environment, this person can be recognized as ‘ill-fitting’ in the systems, and this can be threatening for the individual’s identity (Kroon & Spotti, 2011). Although Afrikaans is an official language in the Potchefstroom Police station, if the client is not being accommodated in his or her own language, this can become a threat to the client that wants to be served in their own language. A second, new meaning that can be added to the term dangerous multilingualism in this research is the consequence of police officers not communicating in a common language over the radio, which can become life threatening, and thus because of multilingualism lives are at stake.
Finally, a more general conclusion can be drawn from communication between police officers and outsiders. The language in which police officers communicate with outsiders depends on the ethnicity of both actors. For example a Tswana police officer will speak Tswana with a Tswana outsider. However, when different ethnicities and different languages meet, it is likely arise problems because the actors simply do not understand each other. As the languages in the South African context entail different images, this enhanced the complexity of communication. For example, a white client approaches an African police member in the
‘language of the oppressor’, the police officer will be antagonized and differences in treatment arise. Therefore, it can be concluded that within the Potchefstroom Police Station, different ethnicities come with different linguistic repertoires, in which language can be a determining factor to enhance unequal treatment.
In a broad spectrum, from this research can be stated that multilingualism in the police environment is causing dangerous situations. To shortly answer the research question,
Potchefstroom police officers appear to take the language policy in their own hands with all of its consequences. When police members encounter with other ethnicities, no matter whether this involves colleagues or clients, different linguistic repertoires are used. In line with CDA, this study reveals how language directed by the government produces, maintains, and changes the social relations of power (Fairclough, 1989). This research reveals how language is still a distinctive feature in segregation of different ethnicities. Therefore, a question that arises from
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” this research is whether the new democratic government is able to challenge the apartheid ideology, as this research confirms that SAPS Potchefstroom is still highly monolingual.
6.2 Discussion
In the last paragraphs of this thesis the limitations and recommendations for future research will be discussed. Although this research was conducted with utmost commitment and dedication, throughout the research processes some hurdles occurred which were accompanied by limitations. After discussing these limitations, recommendations for future research will be presented.
6.2.1 Limitations
In this study, a good insight in interactions between police officers and police officers and clients was obtained, however, this does not hold for interactions between police officers and offenders.
Although the researcher was allowed to go on patrol with two African police members through the IKacheng Township, it was on a very quiet, day and no incidents occurred. An attempt to record interaction between police officers and outsiders without the presence of the researcher failed. If there were no threats for the safety of the researcher, it would have been no problem.
However, because of the high number of attacks on South African police officers in general
(SAPS Operational Toolkit), this became unachievable. Also, during the research appeared that the detectives, the ones that take over the work after a citizen is arrested, have a large share in interaction with offenders as well. If these two groups were included, this would have provided a more detailed picture of how the languages enhance social power relations.
In the former chapter, some points of critique concerning the CDA theory were already pinpointed. Here, there will be elaborated upon a methodological deficiency that has consequences for this research. In line with what Widdowson (1998) states and what is experienced by the researcher; the analytical concepts of CDA appear to be rather vague. For this research this meant that a lot of precious time had to be invested in finding answers which were
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” not available, and finally as a solution a combination of analytical approaches was used. On a wider level of limitations that occurred during this research, CDA is solely focusing on First-
World, Late Modern societies (Blommaert, 2005). In that matter, it would be questionable whether this framework is suitable for this research. However, in the South African context where ethnicity and in turn language, power and inequality are thus evident, this can provide new insights for the theory. For example, in Western societies where historically the Whites are the majority and they have ruled. In the South African context it is, after a long struggle, the African, former oppressed citizens that are now in power. How this manifests in discourse would be a fruitful exploration of the extensibility of this theory.
Going back on the limitations of this particular research, the extent to which linguistic repertoires could be studied requires elaboration. Until the start of the data collection, the researcher did not know which languages would be spoken by the police officers. From the website and contact with the national office so far appeared that English was the working language. However, the languages that are spoken the most amongst the different ethnicities are
Tswana and Afrikaans. Although Afrikaans is understandable for a Dutch speaker, being able to distinguish repertoires requires more knowledge about the language. Let alone for Tswana.
English would be the only language left to study linguistic repertoires; however, this would have been more appropriate when the researcher adopted a shadowing approach (Czarniawska, 2007,
2008).
6.2.2 Recommendations for future research
From the discussion concerning the findings of this research and what is argued in several literature sources, a number of recommendations for future research can be formulated. An obvious recommendation is to further study the interaction between police officers and offenders and what linguistic repertoires are used here. This would require a better alignment with the
SAPS concerning the safety of the researcher. Also, involving different language channels could contribute to obtaining better insight in how police officers deal with multilingualism. As from
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” this research appeared that the use of language of Potchefstroom police officers is a source for unraveling power relations, studying the crime actions in report written down during a hearing would also provide highly interesting new research.
As a supplement for existing studies concerning language use and language policies in
South Africa, more attention should be paid to this subject in the police context. Barkhuizen and
De Klerk (2001, 2002) research’ is conducted concerning language and power in South African prisons. This environment also provides a good context to map to study these themes. More research in this topic can give better insight in how important language and its proper planning are, and deserve more attention.
As comparative study to this one in a European context would provide interesting insight to what extent the legacy of apartheid is determining in interactions as they are studied in this research. Although there is no European country with eleven official languages, a case study in for example Brussels could be very revealing. Especially with a CDA approach a comparative study with Europe would be interesting as this approach is aimed at Western societies
(Blommaert, 2005). Elaborating upon the importance of place where a research is conducted, within the South African context, this appears to create more opportunities for future research. In
South Africa, there are very clearly divided ethnic areas. Meaning, suburbs are predominantly inhabited by the White South Africans, and the majority of the African South Africans are gathered in townships (Schuermans, 2011). Also, in Potchefstroom this distinction became highly evident when the researcher joined two African police members on patrol through the
IKacheng Township. Therefore, studying whether police officers’ linguistic repertoires are influenced by the area they are located would be a valuable supplement to this research, and other research concerning spatial studies.
Due to agreements between the researcher and the police officers, this study was conducted during day-time. However, it appeared that Potchefstroom is home to a large population of predominantly White students. Therefore, carrying out a similar study when the police officers are on their night shifts would provide insight whether and how time is intertwined in interethnic encounters between police officers and outsiders.
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To finalize this chapter, and this study, generations appeared to be of high influence in maintaining or changing social structures through language. This is especially evident amongst the African police officers that were studied. Now the apartheid and post-apartheid generation are working together in the same environment, this provides the ideal circumstance to study how these groups are isolating from each other, and how language use is involved.
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Appendix 1: Abstract Fieldnotes
Date
March 5 th
March 12 th
March 14 th
March 26 th
March 27 th
March 28 th
Time
10:00-10:20
07:50-14:00
07:30-14:40
07:50-14:10
10:00-10:40
10:00-10:35
Location
Provincial Office
Provincial Office
Police Station
Spoken to
Guard
Abstract field notes
I am being addressed by guards of provincial office in
African language.The guard tells in English I need to learn Tswana. First experience being excluded by language in police environment. Appointment Col. Is cancelled, new appointment next week.
Guard, Col. Oerleman African and White people work here. Hear Afrikaans and African language in this office. Welcome sign says welcome in 3 languages. Col. Speaks to me in
Afrikaans. Cannot help me with research and sends me to police station. Made appointment with cluster commander.
Secretary, Chief Comm. African secretaries ignore me. Cl. Comm. Is too busy so appointment is cancelled. Secretary brings me to the chief commander. He tells English, Tswana and
Afrikaans are main languages. Also, he tells majority of police members is African. After interview I stroll around in the police station.
Police Station; courtyard Chief Comm., Mildred, First interviews. Feel little uncomfortable with
Bolanle
Police Station; courtyard Bjorn, Herman, Jan interview guide so adjust it a little. After the interviews stay at the courtyard and have some small talk with police officers.
Herman and Jan very strict on checking my national office approvalform.Feel Jan has much more to say but doesn’t dare to. After interviews see if I can find chief commander and try to get statistics of crimes and personnel.
Police Station, iKacheng Bjorn, Karina, Kalifa, On patrol in iKacheng township with Raymond and
Adia, Stanley, Raymond, Jonah. I get to interview the chief commander of the
Jonah iKacheng police station. Experience it very shocking, I was not aware Potchefstroom had a township this massive. No incidents occur during the patrol. In
Potchefstroom Police Station got my hand on
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
April 3 rd
April 4 th
April 5 th
April 17 th
March 29 th
March 30 th
April 2 nd
07:45:15:00
07:30-14:00
07:50-14:20
07:30-14:00
08:00-14:30
08:00-08:45
10:00-13:00
Police Station; cells
‘Operational Toolkit’.
Karina, Hanna, Andre Incident of exclusion through language during
Stefan, Abedi interview with Hanna. Got stuck in police cells with interview with Abedi.Tried to get a hand of personnel figures, but HR appears to be too busy to help.
Police Station; courtyard Bjorn, Karl, Issay,
Gamba
Police Station; complaints desk
Bjorn, Joanne, Mark,
Albert
After the interviews I focused on all of the posters that hang in the police station. They are all in English.
Finally got a hand to statistics from the personnel of the police station.
Very revealing interview with white female. After first interview go to complaints desk to observe. One
Police Station; complaints desk
Police Station; complaints desk
Hans, Herman, Eshe
Bjorn, Henri
African man (probably non South African) is struggling with English to a African police officer.
Have the feeling takes longer to serve him than other clients. No access to police files (‘dockets’).
Hans smokes during the interview in his office, while it is a non-smoking building. Off the record interview with Herman about being white in the SAPS. Very revealing how White police members experience they are being discriminated. After the interview went to complaints desk. No remarkable incidents. After the last interview of today feel no more new insights are occurring.
Final interviews. From tomorrow there will be inspections again and everyone will be too busy to help me. He kindly requests me to stay away. In complaints desk striking event where White client is
Police station; Bjorn being rude to African officer because of language.
‘Thank you for helping gift’ to Bjorn and Karina.
Police station; courtyard Karina, Hans, Herman, Ask if she can arrange if officer takes audio recorder
Kalifa, Joanne on patrol.Karina gives audio recorder to African police officer and I explain how it works. In the meanwhile, go with transcripts to interviewees to see if they can check the transcript and whether they want to add something or make a comment.
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Appendix 2: Interview guide
Preface: Set the interviewee at rest, explain purpose of the interview, appreciation for the participation, rules of confidentiality, does the participant have questions so far?
This is a interview guideline , the researcher will probe on the answers given by the informant!
Introductory questions:
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What is your age?
For how long have you been in the Police Service?
Why did you join the Police Service?
What has your career been like until now (within the Police Service)?
What does an ‘ordinary day’ at work look like?
What sort of reports do you generally get in?
To what extent do you consider language as an important aspect in your daily work?
Why?
Language:
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What is your first language? (in what language are you raised, in what language are you thought?)
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What other languages do you speak? Where did you learn these?
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What languages do you speak in your function?
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Between colleagues:
Can you tell me in which occasions do you speak with your colleagues?
For what purposes do you speak with your colleagues? What languages do you speak
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- within the office?
What language do you speak with your colleagues on the radio?
In what language do you address your colleagues? Is there a difference between black and white colleagues?
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Does it happen your colleagues speak a language you do not speak? How do you feel when this happens?
Between officers and clients
What people are coming in the office the most to report a crime or make a complaint?
When do you talk with clients? For what purpose?
In what language do you address citizens who come in to the police office (e.g. to report a crime)? Do you use one specific language in every case or does it differ ? Why?
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What language do you most often speak with them?
What happens if an Afrikaan wants to do a complaint, but only wants to speak to someone who speaks fluently Afrikaans? How do you feel about this?
Do you think the management should act upon this? How?
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What happens if someone comes in the office that does not speak
English/Afrikaans/Tswana? What should you do?
Between officers and offenders:
What people are most often committing crimes?
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When do you talk with offenders? For what purpose?
What happens if you arrest someone?
In what language do you address offenders? Does this differ per situation? Why?
What do you do when a offender speaks a different language?
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In what language do you have to make reports?
How do you feel about this? Difficult?
Generally speaking, how do you feel about the eleven official languages? Is it working out in practice? Making life more difficult?
(Depending on how long someone has been in the Police Service; can you tell that
- language use has changed throughout the years? How?)
Language policy:
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How do you feel about that language policy that says: English only?
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How do you feel about Afrikaans being predominantly present amongst the community you are serving?
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How do you feel about the majority of the police officers speaking Tswana?
How would you feel about learning new languages of the Service offered it?
Do you think all of the different languages make it more difficult for you to serve the community, and in turn in endanger the communities’ safety?
Finalize:
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Did I forget anything important? Is there anything you want to add?
Would you like to review the transcript of this interview?
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Thank you very much for you cooperation and honesty.
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Appendix 3: Transcripts
Interview 1, 26-03-2012, 08:00 – 08:18
Mildred, Colored female, 4 months within SAPS, student/constable
Interview in radio room (no option for closed room)
I = interviewer R= respondent […] = emotion/emphasis (…) = specific word is hard to hear on the tape
I INTRODUCTION
I For how long have you been in the South African Police Service?
R I’ve been here now for approximately four months.
I Only four months?
R [smiles] Yes, first you go to training, it is ten months, and then you come work here, like, I am on a probation phase now.
I Oh ok..
R As you can see I have the stripes [badges on shoulders] and the others have the other stuff.. So this is like a probation phase.
I Oh ok I see.. So do you still have to go to school after this or is this..
R Uhm.. For now I am based at the station and from October we go back to the college, the police college, and there we do our last part of training, and then we are having our passing up and then it is finished.
I Ok, and then are you going to stay in the answering booth?
R No, it depends on where your commander posts you. Maybe next shift I will be working outside or on that place [points at booth]. He puts you at different places.
I Ok, I see. And can you tell me why did you want to join the police?
R [smiles] It is something I have always wanted to do since I was a little girl. It has been one of my dreams
I Then you ended in the right place, that is nice.
R Yeah.
I Ok, I wanted to ask about your career within the police, but so far it is.. yeah.. only four months here.. So not very long…
R [smiles] yeah..
I Ok. Can you tell me what an ordinary day looks like here in the office? What do you do?
R For me it is most of the time fun for me because I am.. You know it get sometimes hectic, especially during the week on Mondays and in weekends, it is really hectic.. But you know at the end of the day I just make the best of it and I enjoy what I am doing.
I Yes..
R Because especially if you work in the radio room you must remain very calm, and not lose your cool or anything.. So, just stay calm and deal with everything in a proper manner, and then everything will go well.
R
I
I Ok.. So you get phone calls? Or is it like reports.. or complaints.. or..
R Its reports, complaints, anything..Anything. For example they call to say there is a snake in my yard, or there is a guy standing in front of my yard.. You really get very different types of phone calls.
Ok ok. So you said you try to make the best out of it.. Do you sometimes have to deal with.. Like.. difficult calls or things you find hard to deal with?
You get difficult calls from difficult people, because you try to explain one thing, and they start swearing at you and they lose their temper, but you just have to try to keep yourself calm.. And try to explain in a nice manner that, listen up, this is the situation, we can’t come to you immediately.. But if they start losing their temper, just keep calm.. And then, tomorrow maybe if they complain about you and your commander will be saying like you people are rude, you just tell them no I was very calm.. You were the one that was rude, so you just keep your side clean.
I Yeah ok, that is very.. how do you say it… well, good that you can control yourself that well. Ok. So you only
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” work in the office now?
R At this moment, yes.
I And do you have the feeling that you mainly get calls or reports from a specific area? Or is it just from all over the town?
R Uhm.. In Potchefstroom there is two stations. You get the one in the location, and you get the one like this one.
We work basically in the town area, and then the farms. And then the one in the location works the colored area, the Indian area, and the black area. So for instance, if you stay in the colored area I prefer you to phone the one in the (Kacheng) not the one in town.. Because it going to be difficult for us to get to that place.
I Ok, because it is further away or something?
R It is not really further away.. We..That is why it is two stations.. Because the black area is a very big area…
I Ok.. Where is it?
R It is in (Kacheng), if you go down this main road [points to left], and then you get the (afrand) , going down the
(afrand), than you see a board standing (Kacheng), you take that (afrand) and then you proceed straight ahead and there you find it.
I And do you think.. But that is not your area right?
R No it’s not my area.
I And the other police office is that the one around the corner?
R Uhm.. Ok, like now, like yeah, we got like, yeah… Dog unit, flying squat, crime prevention, detectives, and uhm, CIJ.. But this is like, yeah, the main station, we get the little ones. But we are not doing exactly the same job, but it is more or less the same.
I Ok…
R Because, flying squat and dog unit, we will call them up if the suspect is running or a car was stolen.. Or if we need dogs to go sniff on things or something. Crime prevention.. They basically help us with anything. If we..
We share our vehicles, we ask them and they assist us. Basically I think you know what the detectives do
[smiles]
I I pretty much have an idea..
I
R You know the detectives and then there is CIJ.. I don’t know really what they are doing.. They specialize in something, they are like the FBI, and nobody really knows what they are doing, so they are doing something..
Like, I also don’t know what they are doing [smiles]
Ok, well that is interesting. Uhm.. Ok, now I want to focus a bit more on the language, because I think especially in your work when you are answering the phone, it is important.. First, what is your first language?
In what language are you raised?
R My first language is Afrikaans, but I can’t speak it properly [smiles]. But I can speak it, I do understand it..
And… But just sometimes I struggle with it because Afrikaans is sometimes.. You know.. A little difficult for me. I grew up with English, but my mother my father they speak pure Afrikaans, but I grew up with English.
So you know, I never take Afrikaans very seriously..
I Ok..
R Ok but I speak two languages Afrikaans and English, and I am learning Tswana. I am learning a new one, one of the African languages. Because that is basically the easiest one you can learn.
I Really is it? And do you hear it often around here?
R Ja, the North West province, it is basically.. Most of the blacks here speak Tswana. So I decided to learn myself that language because it is that big.
I I see. And your education in the police academy, was it in English or..
R English. Because, if we go out there is different types of cultures, so it best to speak a language that everyone understands.
I Ok, so because you are now working on the Setswana, you speak three languages..
R That’s right.
I Ok, and do you speak all of these languages in your functioning?
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R For me, most of the time it is a white person. With them I speak Afrikaans or English. If it is a black person, I try to speak English or.. You know if I speak English I speak it slow. So the people calling from the farms are often not really educated, so just try to understand what they say. But most of the time I ask one of my colleagues that does speak the language and that person will help me out.
I I understand, ok.. Uhm.. Does that happen often, that you have to switch to Afrikaans?
R We get it often. For instance, I am working with a black girl, and a white person phones in and asks give me someone that speaks Afrikaans.. And then there is the same thing with me, if I work with a white person and a black person is calling they give it to me.
I Ok. So then, you pick up the phone.. Then you start talking in English or..
R Well, I start with, South African Police Service, Potchefstroom, ….. is speaking,.. And then… So it is basically in English. On the other side the person will decide what language they want to switch to.
I Ok.. And have you ever experienced that someone does not speak English, nor Afrikaans, nor Setswana?
R You see that is the wonderful thing of speaking the other languages apart from English and Afrikaans, like.. I would understand.. If I would speak Afrikaans you would understand me and if you would speak Dutch I would understand you. It is pretty much the same in the African languages. If maybe.. For example if someone speaks
Zulu, they will understand what a person is saying in Tswana no matter what African language they will understand, just like me and you. If you speak Dutch, German or anything close to Afrikaans, I will understand you.
I [surprised] Ok.. So the African languages are pretty much alike?
R More or less.
I Ok, because I heard a few of the languages during my stay here so far, and I was like.. My god.. But if you say that they are pretty much alike, that is very interesting.
R You see, if you grow up in South Africa, you learn to understand.. And basically, some of the stuff is just about pronunciation, the way they speak it.. Just like me and you, we do speak the same language, just a different way.. But we understand each other.
I That’s true.. Ok. Do you ever feel insecure or uncomfortable with the different languages?
R No I really don’t. It is just either I sit there or I walk away. I am not going to be there and make myself feel uncomfortable. I also work here, so I am going to stay here. And whether you gossip about me, I don’t mind as well. You can gossip, I don’t care [smiles].
I [smiles] Well that is a good attitude I think. Alright. What language do you most often speak with your colleagues? Like in a break or something..
R English.
I English.. Ok..
R But now those days they mostly speak Tswana to me to teach me. But mostly we speak English.
I Ok, but does it differ if you are being addressed by a white colleague? Or Indian..
R Ok if it is a white colleague, we speak Afrikaans. Indian it is English, because they mostly speak English. Uhm and coloreds as well, they speak Afrikaans. But mostly in the working environment, the most common language is English.
I Ok. And I presume you also have to make your reports in English?
R Yes. Unless you want to make it in Afrikaans, it depends on you.
I Ok, but it is allowed to do it in all of the languages?
R Ja, it is allowed to. But the reason why we do it in English is like the detectives. Like you write it in your language. The detective can’t read that language, so that is why we prefer it in English. So we all understand what is happening.
I But are there.. Because, I am thinking.. In English you have like certain terms and stuff, but if you have an
African.. Afrikaans I mean call, isn’t it more difficult to change it into English but keeping the main message?
R Sometimes it is, that is why.. When I myself I open a (docket), you can write it in Afrikaans, but I am going to
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” try my very best to turn all of the information into the report. Sometimes it is more difficult, because then you can’t remember the specific word said in Afrikaans and you can’t come to it in English.
I Ok. These questions I have here are also for the police officers who have to go outside.. But if you have to address, it is difficult on the phone off course.. Like, when you have to address someone of who you see he or she is doing something ‘bad’ or something.. Do you know if people generally address them in English?
R What I have seen when I was outside for a while.. What I have seen is that the people I work with are jokers..
They will speak to you in your language so that you can understand each other. And if you come across someone who speaks my language than I speak. And I make so much jokes. But if the person makes like a serious offense, then we are very serious. We leave the jokes inside of the van, and we are very serious. We address them in a proper manner. We are not rude to them, we are just a little harsh on them. Like, we are the law, and what you did was wrong.
I Ok, and does this go with a specific language? Or is that just any language..
R Ok, what I have seen from working outside, we basically use the language we feel comfortable in. So if I work with one of these girls [points to phone desk, black girls], and we come across someone that is doing something wrong and he is a black guy, we will speak in his language. And when I come across someone who speaks Afrikaans, I will speak Afrikaans. As long as the person understands, look, what you’re doing is wrong.
Because, if you are speaking in English, they are not really going to listen to you. Like I said the other day,
English is a calm language, it is very calm. You can’t really express your feelings in it. So if you address someone in your own language, you can really express your feelings and show someone is wrong.
I Ok, I understand. In your training, do you learn about a certain policy or something?
R Yeah, in training they teach you everything and then they.. In training they say that you can only use English.
To me that is impossible, because you will get people that don’t understand English at all. So it is impossible.
For instance, I come to you and I speak Afrikaans and you don’t really understand Afrikaans, you are not really going to listen to what I am saying, do you understand..
I Yes that will be problematic.. I understand. So that is kind of strange maybe.. I think that the head office knows right..
R They KNOW! And you know, at college they like isolate it because you only work with students, they don’t work with outside people anymore. They think, ok fine, English is English, everyone will understand it. But if you go to one of the farms, you will find a black man who can’t speak English but who can speak Afrikaans.
And then the whites on the farm, they really don’t want to speak English. They say they grew up with
Afrikaans and they will stick to Afrikaans.
I That must be difficult sometimes.. Ok.. I think I asked pretty much the questions so far.. But, the language policy, with English only is kind of…
R It doesn’t work here.. Because I think it is better for me and you if we talk in a language we both understand.
Then I can explain to you nicely, what you’re doing is wrong, because of this and this and this. But now if I speak English they can’t probably understand the half of what I am saying.. So it is better if I speak a language you understand. Because, if you look in South Africa, you just don’t have only the South Africans. We got people from America.. All over the world, they live here. So, I can understand why they say only English, but if
I go to someone who speaks the African languages, they will not understand what I say. Some of them not even
Afrikaans. So it is better if I speak an African language, so I can explain to them. As you see, South Africa can be a very confusing, but also very exciting place[smile]
I [smile] Indeed, so far it is very exciting. Ok, I think that was pretty much it.. Do you have further questions or things you want to say?
R No.. Just that I want to go to Dutch one day [smile] The Netherlands
I [smile] Really?! But the weather isn’t as good as it is in here you know
R Well that is ok..
I Ok, I am going to turn the tape recorder off right now.
I FINALIZE
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Interview 2, 26-03-2012, 08:21 – 08:38
Bolanle, African female, 8 years within SAPS, Constable
Interview in radio room (no option for closed room)
I INTRODUCTION
I Can you tell me something about your job. What do you do in an ordinary day?
R I work outside mostly, mostly all the time.
I Ok…
R Pending complaints, dealing with people outside.. Yeah..
I Ok.. And for how long have you been in the Police Service?
R For eight years now.
I Oh really? And do you like it so far?
R Ja, I like it a lot.
I Ok. And is this the first time in the Police Service? Or did you have different jobs around here?
R It is my first job.
I Ah, I see. Ok. Uhm.. Can you tell me something about the reports you get in, or the complaints you have to go to?
R Whoa [laughs], lots of complaints! Especially civil matters, they come here to complain.. Ja.. about husband and wife.. The beatings.. The money.. And so on..
I Ok.. So that is pretty heavy stuff so to say.
R Yeah it is, this Thursday I attended to a car accident with injuries..
I Oh really.. Wouw..
R And later the driver past away.
I Ahh, that is very sad and difficult..
R Yeah very difficult.
I Yeah.. But despite that, you like the job right [smiles]
R [smile] Yeah I do very much
I Ok, that’s good. So why did you join the Police Service? What attracted you in becoming a police officer?
R I love the community, and I love working with people, and to help the people.. Yeah that is my passion.
I Then you made a very good decision I guess. Ok, than I would like to ask you some stuff about the languages now. In what language are you raised?
R Tswana.
I Ok. And your education? Like primary education?
R The highest education?
I Uhm.. Just generally..
R Ah that was Twsana, the first language. In primary and high school, it was de first language.
I And the police education was in.. English?
R Yeah it was in English.
I Ok. Was it difficult for you to make the switch?
R No not really, mostly it is already common language.. So..
I Ok, I see. So you speak English and Tswana, are there any other languages you speak?
R I speak Tswana. I speak Xhosa. And I speak Zulu.
I That’s a lot of languages. Do you all need them in your work? Or is it mainly English?
R No, mostly it is English, because we are with a lot of different people. So we have to communicate in English.
But when I talk to my friends, over the radiophone, I use my language.
I Ah, that is more easy I guess.. I understand. Ok. Do you use these languages for different purposes? For example, if you’re talking to a manager, do you speak another language than when you speak to your colleague during your coffee break?
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R It depends.. If it is a white person, I communicate with him in English. And like my commander is a black person so I communicate with him in Tswana and then we understand each other.
I Ok. And if you are out in the street, and you have to address someone..
R It also depends. Most of the people I run into are from the area around, and they don’t know English or
Afrikaans. So that is than only Tswana, that is the only language they understand.
I I understood from your colleague, that according to the language policy everything has to be in English?
R Yeah, everything in English.
I But isn’t that a bit strange then… Maybe..?
R No, because we are different cultures. If I talk Tswana, you don’t understand. If I talk Xhosa, you don’t understand. And English, everyone understands English.
I Ok I see, that’s clear. And has it ever happened that someone speaks a language you don’t speak.. Or understand?
R Uhh Ja.
I Ok.. Can you tell me about it?
R [smiles] Ja, like the other day I attended at a complain, and they were speaking Chinese.
I Ahh no we don’t understand that language [smiles]
R So I didn’t understand ANYTHING! No one understands the China, so it was a difficult situation..
I Ok.. And how did you solve it?
R We communicate with hands.. With hands and then in the end we understood what we were saying.
I Ok.. And was it like a complaint or something?
R Yeah it was a complaint, but is wasn’t a difficult one.
I Ok, it wasn’t dangerous or something?
R No no no it wasn’t dangerous.
I Ok, that’s good than. Do you know if it ever happens, that someone is ‘out there’ and has to deal with for example Chinese people, or people with a language they don’t speak?
R …Pardon… Again?
I Do you know if it ever happened, in a dangerous situation, that the officer for example has to deal with a
Chinese person? Or someone who speaks another language that the officer doesn’t speak?
R Ahh.. Uhm.. I know someone had a Chinese one also, a long time ago. And then the officer had to call someone, because.. If we get a complaint of someone that we don’t understand, we call someone else that does understand.
I Ok, I see. Is that like an interpreter?
R Ja interpreter.
I Ahh.. Ok. And is he or she also in this office?
R Ja sometimes you have to call and sometimes there is among us.
I Ok. And is that someone from the head office then?
R No it is someone from us.
I Ok, I see. So, generally speaking, you can always arrange something to work out.
R Maybe when I don’t understand them like when someone doesn’t speak Xhosa for example, I will call someone that will translate for me.
I Ok.. Yes yes yes yes [referring to questions on interview guide].. Uhm.. If there comes anyone into the office that comes.. Because you have downstairs the community..
R The community service.
I Yeah, that is where the people come in right? That is where they..
R Do the complaints ja.
I Ok. Do you generally address them.. Do you adjust to what you see? Like, if you see a black man coming in, you speak Tswana?
R No if someone walks in with a.. Maybe a black person, I relate to it and start talking in Tswana.
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I Ok, so you adjust to the person.
R Ja.
I Ok.. Can you tell me something about the statistics? Or the criminal records you have here? Like.. The offenders, are they often from one area, or…
R No the offenders are most often from outside. So they come here to make a crime.
I Oh really? So they are often not Potchefstroom citizens?
R No, most of them they are from outside. They come here to take a chance and go away [laughs].
I Oh.. So they can go away and then you never catch them… Ok.. That is bad.. Because, I have been here for three weeks now, and generally I feel pretty safe here..
R Ja it is very safe in Potch, because no one really (…) freely, because there are cameras all over the town.
I Yeah, I feel very safe so you are doing a good job [smiles]
R [laughs] Thank you.
I Ok. Have you ever arrested someone?
R Most of the time.. Ja, always.
I Ok.. Can you tell me how it works? Is it like a formal process.. Or does it depend on the situation?
R Ja ok, let me give you an example about shop lifting. We are called that there is someone shoplifting, and then we have to go there to the complain. And then they explain to us what happened.. Then I open the case. Then I arrest the person, and I give him or her his rights, and then cough him or her, and then put him or her in the van, and them put them to the police station cells.
I Ok.. And then you make a report of that.. I guess?.. You make a report?
R Ja the report I make is in the police books. Everything we do we report it in the police book.
I Ok, and do you do that in English then? Or..
R Ja in English.
I Ok. And then if you bring the suspect in, then are you going to question him or her? Or is there someone else to interrogate?
R No I am not going to questioning, I just go down to tell him his rights, and that he or she is going to be arrested, and tell for what reason he or she is arrested and then I go to arrest them, and which case, and then I am going to lock him or her up.. (…)
I Ok.. So if I understood you; you are bringing him in inhere and you lock him up.. But then who is going to.. Is there like a detective?
R Yes there is the detective. Ja, that is a different part of the police.
I Ok, so that is the one that is going to the bottom of everything..
R Yes.
I Ok, now I understand it. Do you ever experience difficulties? Or do you think it is hard when you have to arrest someone?
R Ahh ja, it is very hard to arrest someone. Like last week there was a drunk (…). And I wanted to arrest him..
But then he was too heavy for me [laughs]. He was too heavy and drunk..
I Ah.. that must be difficult..
R Ja he didn’t want to go inside the van, and then he sweared, and then I had to call for a backup. So that they can help me to put him away.
I Because, are you on your own then? Or with the two?
R Ja with the two.
I That is more safe I guess..
R Ja that is much safer [smiles]
I Ja, I understand. Ok.. So I was thinking, if you have such a difficult guy to arrest.. Do you also speak Afrikaans then?
R Ja I do not always speak Afrikaans..
I Ok.. But if you have such a drunk guy and you have to speak Afrikaans, but you can’t really express yourself,
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I
I
R
I
R isn’t that difficult?
R Ja it is very difficult. When you are angry you just want to talk your language.. And express yourself.
I Ja, I can imagine.. And what language do you speak then?
R Tswana.
I Ok, even if it would be an Afrikaan..
R No not then because he wouldn’t understand anything I said. I just have to communicate in the language he understands.
I Ah, I see. Otherwise he wouldn’t know what he is arrested for [smiles]
R [smiles] Ja.
I Ok.. The policy we talked about, that you should only speak English.. Does it say like, just speak English, or does it say adjust to the situation?
R No just English. It depends on the situation, and the person you attend to..
I Ok.. And do you think it is a useful policy?
R Ja it is useful.
I Ok.. Like you said.. It is a language that pretty much everyone understands..
R Ja everyone understands.
I Ok.. And then, final question.. Generally speaking; how do you feel about the eleven official languages? Like, do you think it is good that everyone can speak his own language? Or do you say it would be more useful if anybody spoke.. English..
R English.. No, it would be good if everyone had a language that we could understand each other.. Because of the complaints.. In my situation if anyone speaks Xhosa, I can talk to him in Xhosa. And if anyone speaks Zulu, or other languages I speak I can communicate with him. I don’t have a problem with that.
I Ok, so I see.
R So yeah, the languages is useful.
I In the Netherlands we have only one language.. Dutch..
R Only one? Whoaa..
I But more and more you hear English around you, but like my grandparents don’t speak English at all. And sometimes you have people with very heavy dialects, and it is hard to understand each other.. Ok… Uhm do you have any further questions for me?
R No, nothing further.
I Ok, I think I have all of the information I need.. So thank you very much for your time..
R My pleasure.
I Ok, I’ll turn this thing off again
I FINALIZE
Interview 3, 27-03-2012, 08:00 – 08:15
Herman, White male, 19 years within SAPS, Warrant Officer
Interview in room with open door and other people passing by (no option for closed room)
INTRODUCTION
Yes, we’re up and running.
Ok, I mainly do crime prevention. I do all the crime prevention tasks. Road patrols, foot patrols, the planning, crime planning.. All those kind of things.
Ok.
Ok, so every morning we have a meeting, we discuss the crime analysis. And according to the crime analysis, we do the planning for the day, posting the vehicles posting the members.. And we see who we send to the high crime areas like (…) baking, (…)… That area, we see who we put in there. So that is basically our main
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I Ok. And you are leading that..
R We have four, three different groups at this stage. Each group has a commander and a commander above him.
I Ok.. And mister Mokgabe, the chief commander..
R Colonel Mulate, she is the chief.
I Ok I see.
R Alright, and just beneath her you have other colonels, like for the crime center, and the crime office here for the (dates) and the dockets and things.. There is a lot of commanders beneath her.
I Ok.. So your days begins with the meeting..
R Ja normally if we work, we work like three days two nights, then you’re off. So every commander goes to
I
Mulates office for the meeting for crime. It was the meeting we went there now .. I was supposed to be in that meeting..
Oh really..
R Ja but she told me that it is fine. So that is it..
I Ok, and then.. Then you..
R Ok, then I take my members, and then I post them.
I Ok. But are they also going to respond to the complaints and stuff? Or ..
R No it is a different unit that works complaints. So they call it the CAC. And the radio control.. They are the
I ones that.. Is their main task, of answering to the complaints.
Ok
R And then sometimes when it is an housebreak I will go there or send one of my members there. They get us the information, and we see if we can get there.
I Oh ok.. I see. And I wonder, why aren’t you wearing a uniform?
R Alright, that is part of the crime combating. If you go with a uniform and you do foot patrol, anybody can see you are a police. But if I go like this.. A police man you can see on his attitude that he is a police man. But if you walk along with two or three other man in the street, they’ll just think your shopping.
I Ok.. So then you see something happening..
R Alright, so if you drive by and you see something happening, you attend to that. That is automatic, there is no discussion about it. That is your work, you do that.
I Ok, yeah that is the crime prevention.. Ok. And is it busy at the moment?
R Yeah, it all depends on what time of day it is.. Like now from 8 to 4 the central business district is very busy because the shops is open, people shopping.. So the main complaints there is theft.. When people have stolen something from the shops and control (…), we don’t go there. It is a straight forward thing. But if it is like a housebreaking, and they stole a car and they give a registration number, my team attends to that.
I And with how many people is your team?
R Alright, we supposed to be ten, but the lieutenant is not here, and one guy is on leave, so we are with about eight now.
I Ok, and that is for the whole city?
R For the whole city.
I It doesn’t sound like..
R You must remember that is only crime prevention. Then you have the radio control, you have the CVC members, CCU members, dog unit.. Everybody is working, but we are the only ones doing the crime
I prevention.
Because.. How much people are there about in total? Can you give an estimation?
R Pff..24000 maybe..
I Really?!
R Yeah, we are with a lot
I That much.. Ok..
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
R Yeah that is really a lot and I think it is excluding students.
I Wouw.. That is very big..
R Yeah and there are a lot of students.
I But.. Yeah I guess it is necessary.. But Potch doesn’t look that big to me..
R Ja it doesn’t look that big but there is a lot of activity.. A lot.. Criminal activity is high..
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Oh ok.. I live in the Mooirivier Mall area, but for my feeling it is pretty safe there
[laughs] Ja, it is safe! Potch is not that.. There is not a lot of aggregated crime like robberies and killing murders, and dead .. That is not a lot here. But it is like drugs and theft of motor vehicles, and housebreakings.. That is our main problem.
Ok, I see. And then the crime prevention, what is your main.. Or how are you going to prevent the housebreakings and stuff?
R The main thing to do is car patrols and foot patrols. And then you have informants, they give you the information and you must act upon it. That is the three main things you can do.
I Ok, I see. Uhm.. From the interview of yesterday I understood that this office mainly works for the farmer area and the center so to say..
R No! You have on your radio control you have three sectors, sector one sector two and sector three. You have business and the residential, then there is your farms and your plots and your industrial area.
Ok, I see.. That is new information. Ok. Then I would like to ask now something about the languages..
Ok. The two basic languages in the South African police are English and Afrikaans. But the problem with
Afrikaans is that some of the black members don’t understand it. So the main language is English. But they do speak Tswana to each other and on the job. It is not permitted.. But for them it is easy communication.
Ok. So what languages do you speak?
I can Afrikaans, English, and I can speak Fanagolo. Fanagolo is the language is not an official language. It is the language we use in the mines. It is from the workers.
Ok, I haven’t heard from it..
R Ja it is combination of all sorts of languages, but people will understand it because people can relate to some of it. So if you speak Fanagolo someone WILL understand it, they can relate to that.
I Ok. Because you also have to deal with a lot of the criminality of the mines?
R Ja. I won’t say a lot of criminals, but like.. From Mozambique there come a lot of illegal workers. You do get some of them, and they understand Fanalgolo. So then you don’t have to get someone that speaks Portuguese or whatever they speak..
I Ok. So if you see somebody with his hands.. Like.. Trying to break in a house.. In what language o you approach somebody then?
R Normally English. (…) But they will understand.
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And to your colleagues, what do you speak to them?
Most of them Afrikaans. Because most of them are old warrants.. oh sorry… [black colleague interrupts, speaks Afrikaans with him]… You see we speak Afrikaans. He is an older warrant officer so he understands.
Most of the members, the coloreds, are used to Afrikaans. They come out of a generation that is Afrikaans.
Ok. I forgot to ask, for how long have you been in the police by now? I
R For 19 years now.
I Ok, that is quite a while already..
R Yeah.
I And did you start as a police officer? Or..
R Yeah everyone starts as a police officer. Then you become sergeant, warrant officer, that is what I am right now. Then you become lieutenant, major.. It is a lot of ranks you can go to.
I Ok. So did you experience like a big change when the police changed from Afrikaans to English?
R No, not for me. I am bilingual from schooldays so I was used to it.
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Ok, that’s clear. I was thinking.. Does it differ if you have to address a black person or a white person? Or is it just generally..
No, I don’t think there is a difference. Pretty much everyone understands English. When I address someone in
Afrikaans and he doesn’t understand it, I switch to English. And if he doesn’t understand, you get someone that speaks Tswana. But it is no problem.
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Ok. So does it ever happen that you approach someone who doesn’t speak English nor Afrikaans?
Yes it does. For example the Mozambiquens that come in illegally. They speak or Fanagolo or Portuguese.
And most of the time it is Portuguese, and then you have a problem. But until now, everyone adapts to Xhosa or Zulu or something.. One way or another we get there. If we really don’t get it, we get an interpreter.
Ok, and is that someone here in the office?
R No, it is often someone from court. They have to deal a lot with cases where an interpreter is required. If you approach the problem, any problem, you will find somebody there.
I Ok. The court, that is around the corner here right?
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R Yeah the opposite of the Westpoint square, it is the opposite yeah.
I Ok, that is also good to know. Uhm.. When you are like in the heat of the moment.. Because I saw you carrying a gun, somebody is doing something very bad.. Is it difficult to.. With all the languages?
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No no.. With the languages, it is either a black guy, a white guy or a colored one. So anybody, according to my knowledge, can understand English. I start in Afrikaans, and if someone does not react I switch to
English, if he does not understand we try something else. And you see, we are always with two officers in a car, a black one and a white one, because of the language barrier.
Ok, so they actually plan that?
R Ja, but it is normal for us. We get along with anybody. You normally have your partner where you are driving with, but if your partner takes somebody else, it is no problem.
I Ok. Yesterday I understood from your colleague that there is some kind of language policy that says English only..
R The policy says English and Afrikaans. But because some of the guys don’t understand Afrikaans, it is now
English. But Afrikaans is still one of the valid languages.
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But isn’t that like.. I was thinking about it after the interview.. The people that make that up, the English only, don’t they like know that the English only doesn’t work?
Ja, you see, most of our commanders are black. And that is not a problem because most of the commanders speak English and Afrikaans because they are old police men. But sometimes, in a meeting, we like normally say we keep it in English. That is standard.
Yeah I understand it. In here, it is not a problem because you are all educated in English, but in the streets it is hardly possible right..
Yeah it looks like if you speak Afrikaans he doesn’t react, you speak English he doesn’t react then you get someone else that speaks Tswana, because the most common language in Potch is Tswana. So everybody understands it, so there is no problem there.
Ok. Then as a final question.. How do you generally feel about the eleven official languages. Do you think it is good or bad or..
R No I won’t say it is bad because everyone has its own place in the sun, everyone is allowed to have their own place in town.. In the police, I myself can’t learn eleven languages to speak.. That is why we have English. So generally we just speak English.
Ok, that’s about it.. I
R Is that all you want to know? Is everything clear?
I Ja it is clear that what you speak in the office and what in the streets and why..
R Ja, basically with my group we speak Afrikaans, because normally we speak it as we go. But if we have a new member on our team I always switch to English. And if they don’t understand I normally get someone to explain to her.
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I Ok, I see. That sounds good. I am going to turn this thing off now.. Do you have any further questions for me?
FINALIZE
Interview 4, 27-03-2012, 08:20 – 08:37
Jan, White male, 28 years within SAPS, Warrant Officer
Interview in room with open door and other people passing by (no option for closed room)
I INTRODUCTION
R This is more for Communication services [points at approval for master thesis research within SAPS]..
I Yeah I have already been there with your colleague..
R Captain (…)..? The one that is sitting here? [points at office on the other side of the hall]
I Ja.. Across the hall..
R Na, that is one from crime prevention..
I Yes he is, but he took me to the communication office, and they approved.
R Ahh.. Ok then.. But it will be better for you that they assist you.. Because.. uhh.. I can give you only the things that happen to ME.. So that is the main thing.. But others work with uhh.. others.. If they cannot speak English or Afrikaans, I cannot assist them.. So I am going to call one of my investigation officers and will ask a black person to assist them.
I Ahh. Ok.
R And that is all I can say at the moment to you..
I [smiles] Well we are going to give it a little try anyway, I have very nice questions not only about language.
Can you tell me something about your function, what do you do here..
R I am a group commander, I got members underneath me, they are send out to work all these cases [points at a pile of reports on the desk] that was reported.. They must attend to(…). So they must do the work, and then report back to me.
I Ok, so you are not really in the field? You are really..
R No, I just sit here. I give information to the people that come here.. The phone.. People phone quite often about cases.. I give them feedback.. And so forth.
I Ok, so you mainly talk with your colleagues, not with the actual..
R No, I work with the public, because when they don’t get any information at the charge office, they normally bring them here. And then I must listen to the story, and then I must give commands to the people that work with them, so that they can assist them. For example, if there was a crime committed, or not. And what is the
(…) that is at stake? For example if it is a theft case I must open a theft case.. Or depends on what kind of crime was it. Because, the people in the charge office is normal juniors. And sometimes she doesn’t know what to do, and comes back here. We discuss it then, and then I give the order of what they must do.
I Ok.. So you must have quite some experience if they..
R 28 years [smiles]
I 28 years?! Wouw, that is a lot of experience.. And did you start here as a police officer or..
R Yes. Now I am a detective warrant officer. I was not promoted.. I don’t know why.. I can give you reasons, but
I am not going to discuss that..
I Ok, whatever you feel comfortable with.. And can you tell me why did you join the police service 28 years ago?
R I was young, it was exciting.. Something like that.. That was the main reason.
I Ok..
R And to assist people.. That was when I started. Now I don’t feel that [laughs]
I [laughs] But now.. You are having a different view on it?
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R No still to assist people.. Like they phone me at home also asking questions.. But not to.. Reluctant anymore to assist. Because we are really negative, because we don’t get promoted and stuff like that..
I Ok.. So.. Then.. Why do you like it? [smiles]
R I just like the work
I And a lot still needs to be done [points at pile of reports]
R Because I was at (…) murder and robber unit..
I Sorry can you say that again?
R I was at (…) murder and robber unit for a long time.. Before I came here.
I Ok..
R So I got a lot of experience..
I Yeah, 28 years..
R And I have been in this work for fifteen years.. In the same rank..
I [smiles] You would say time for something different. Well, it must have been very different when you begun here..
R When I came from murder and robbery unit yeah.. That is very exciting, fast.. Everything. This is a slow pace..
I Yeah I see.
R So I had to compromise.. So I had in the beginning this town was too small for me. I couldn’t adapt here.
Because, in the Eastrand, borders were about 800 kilometers diameter.. So when you get a scene at (…) you must go there, when you get a scene at (…) you must go there.. So it was the rush that had me. Here we still have hijacking stuff like that, but much more quite.
I All of the action..
R Yeah it wasn’t any more like what I was used to [smiles].
I But it is good, to have experience right..
R Like, yeah.. No one can take it away from you ..
I Exactly.. So if you are here sitting.. Reading.. You can always think back of the glorious days..
R Yeah.. When I was getting officer of the train violence.. In Eastrand..
I Of the what?
R Train violence, of the Eastrand.. The people from.. (..Mukata..) and ANC clashes and stuff like that. And then I had to get evidence before the (…goastal…) commission.. So I don’t think one of these men can say things like that..
I No I don’t think so.. But generally, the people I see now are still rather young.. I feel that there are a lot of trainees.. It that right?
R Yeah, everyone is pretty young.. But uhm.. They get more promotion these days because I was also a facilitator detective.. And you can see how they go through (…). People (…). I am being overseen.. So.. I don’t like it.. But is a main thing that is a big problem at the moment.
I Ok..
R Like.. For moral.. Boost.. It doesn’t work..
I Then can’t you.. Like.. Talk about that with somebody?
R [smiles] No.. If I could.. But yeah.. You know it is not going to assist.. Or at (…) they are not the people you are going to speak to..
I Ok so..
R So.. I don’t know.. It is very difficult..
I Ok.. So this is an interesting.. change.. To the topic of my interview .. To me it is all very interesting to hear from somebody with such much interesting work experience and stuff.. And the whole language thing..
R Yeah the whole language barrier.. It is a big problem.. Like I said, if someone doesn’t speak Afrikaans or
English, I don’t assist them. And if that happens, I call one of my investigating officers or members of the charge officers to assist. So they do the translating and then I listen to what they say.. Make an opinion, and give the orders of what they must do with it.
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I Ok. So are all the reports always in English?
R Ja, English and Afrikaans.
I Ok. So that is understandable..
R Ja. If it is in another language, we cannot assist them.
I Because I heard that another big language here is Tswana?
R Yes. [someone interrupts, speaks Afrikaans with black colleague] But in that language I can’t assist them.
I Ok..
R And all of the other members, they are supposed to speak English. It is one of the languages they get in their training.. So they have to be able to speak that language.
I Yeah because that is where they get their training in..
R And them sometimes they say like “Oeps, I can’t speak English”.. Well then sorry I cannot assist you.
I Yes.. That is clear.
R But it is a question of.. They are pretty… How can I say.. It is not the question that they MUST speak English, but it is that they don’t WANT to speak English.
I That is quite a difference..
R So they are.. Really.. Sometimes.. Spiteful.. In a sense.. They want to speak their own language.. And you know, English is also not my own language.. But I try my best.. And if they cannot compromise, also speaking
English.. How can we assist each other [smiles]?
I Ok. That sounds logical..
R Yeah but they are sometimes.. Make a thing about it..
I About the English?
R Hmhm. Because they feel they want to speak their own language. But it’s just spiteful.. Sometimes they don’t want to speak any other language, only their own language.. Like, we had officers here that speak fluent
Afrikaans.. They came from the Free State.. And there they really speak Afrikaans, they can speak better
Afrikaans than they can speak English.. But in the office they speak English the whole time. They won’t go back to Afrikaans.
I They just adjust..
R They say English is now my language and I am going to speak that. They cannot tell the whole story in
English, as they would have done it in Afrikaans.. But they WON’T go back to Afrikaans.
I Does it happen often that somebody..
R [nods]
I Really? Well that is a first that somebody.. Because I actually got the feeling that everybody is all happy with the English..
R Not you got the.. Yeah we are happy with the English.. But for example a person that was one of the members here. He came from the Free State.. He spoke in his home town, in his house Afrikaans.. So he was fluently
Afrikaans.. But in here we speak English.. And he came and totally speak English [smiles].. But he won’t speak Afrikaans to me.. And I told him a few times.. Listen.. Express yourself in Afrikaans because we both speak Afrikaans.. But no he tries and tries and tries to speak English expressing his (…)
I That is an interesting person..
R Unfortunately he already passed away..
I Oh.. That is very sad.. I am sorry.. Have you been colleagues for a long time?
R I think for about ten years..
I Oh wow.. I am sorry..
R Yeah.. But you know I am really a quite kind of guy.. I don’t really mingle with others..
I Just doing your reports..
R And go home.
I Ok.. And your first language.. It is Afrikaans?
R Yes Afrikaans..
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I And you also speak English then..?
R [nods]
I Ok. You see my questions are not very useful in this situation.. I am sorry.. But I think it is very interesting what you just said.. About not everybody wanting to adjust..
R For example, I try to speak English as most as I can.. But if I can’t express myself I have the right to do it in
Afrikaans.. But sometimes they are just spiteful and they want to try to change..
I Ok.. So how do you generally feel about eleven official languages?
R Not a problem! But like I said.. If someone comes in and speaks Xhosa or something.. I can’t help them..
I So.. It is a good ideology.. Or a good idea.. But in practice..
R Yeah it is good but I have to be able to assist them.. And one time I had a telephone call that someone couldn’t speak Zulu to the telephone people.. And they were asked to bring it back to me in Afrikaans or English..
I So.. In practice…
R Ja..
I Ok.. I think I pretty much have it for now.. Thank you very much for your participation, do you have any further questions for me?
R No… no…
I Ok then I am going to turn this of now..
I FINALIZE
Interview 5, 28-03-2012, 08:00 – 08: 33
Kalifa, African female, 7 years within SAPS, Constable
I INTRODUCTION
R Now there is almost like seven languages they speak around here.. So.. Like, how are you going to interview like all of the peoples that.. I wonder of you have any (…Changali…) police officers.. Because.. That is also one of the languages that we have here in Potchefstroom.. You see. In Potchefstroom you here Tswana,
Afrikaans, English, and also Zulu..
I Yeah I spoke someone who speaks.. Fala..ng…
R Falagolo?
I Yes..
R [laughs] Now ok that one is a mine language.. People speak it in the mines, it is not really a language but it is something everybody understands..
I Yeah ok, but my main goal is to talk with as many people as possible with different backgrounds, and see how they all experience the whole language thing here.. Ok.. Can you introduce yourself shortly.. Like.. What is your age?
R Ok my name is……. I am 32 years old and I am seven years here in the police..
I Ok, and you have been a police officer all the time?
R Yes, in the charge office.
I Ok. So this is where all the people come in if they have..
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R Ja.. Ja.. We meet different people from here, and then here they can make complaints about.. Whatever..
I Anything.. Ok. And you also have to work the day and the night shifts here?
R Yeah.
I Ok, is this also day and night open, the complaints office?
Ja we work day and night.. It is actually 24 hours open. From seven o’clock at night another shift comes in to serve until the following morning..
Yeah it is always 7 to 7 right?
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R Yes it is.
I I think it is very long days..
R Ja it is 12 hours..
I But like.. Don’t you.. I mean today is such a quit day.. Do you think it is a bad thing that you have to work?
R Do I think what?
I Like it’s a pity that you can’t stay home because it is so quiet?
R NO! Because we are getting paid to work! [laughs]
I Of course.. I was just wondering..
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R And it is more money, more money on a holiday and on a Sunday..
I Ohh ok, I see. Ok. And why did you join the Police Service 7 years ago?
R You know honestly speaking.. I was studying public management, I didn’t know I was going to be a police officer.. And then when I finished my diploma, I was at home. And as you know that there was very little jobs in South Africa, they are very scarce. And then I had a license, and that was all I needed at that time. So I applied because I wanted to get income.. And have money.. So I applied and then I got the position and they employed me. So, actually then after college and we came back from police college I find actually quite alright with the work that I am doing.. Because anyway, I am serving the public, you see.
And you don’t ever feel like.. Oh I want to do like something I studied for?
I
I am alright with what I am doing now.. I am waiting for a long time now, seven years at the charge office.. I want to go somewhere.. But now in the police office we have many different units.. So I think I want to change, maybe I can go to crime prevention, or crime intelligence.. I don’t know. We will see. Just to change the unit.. Or change the environment.. But to work within the police..
You want to stay right?
R Yes.
I Ok.. So you are sitting here behind the counter, and you get somebody to do a complaint.. What people do you generally see? Black or white.. Or is it like people from all over the city?
R Ja it generally speaking people from all over the city. But also people like from out of South Africa.. Like
Zimbabwans, like from Swaziland.. So we just help everybody.. There is no like a specific people that we help.. We just help everybody.
I But if like someone from Zimbabwe or Swaziland comes here and they speak a different language..
R They speak (…Shona…).. They are speaking (…Shona…)
I Ok. Do you speak it?
R No, I don’t know it.
I Does anybody from this office speak it? Or what happens if someone comes in that speaks that language?
R Most of the time, you find in our country.. Like in Africa, there is one medium of language we use.. Like for instance English is the medium of language we communicate with.. So if someone from Zimbabwe comes in it
I is not a problem because I know I can communicate with him or her with English. In English he will understand me. But if I speak Tswana, if I speak Zulu, they won’t hear me. If they speak (…Shona…) I won’t understand. So we compromise both so we both understand in English.
But don’t you feel that it is more difficult then.. That you have to do it in a language that is not like.. Your first
R language?
Ja… Sometimes difficult but not really.. It is not that difficult no.. No with the other language it becomes like difficult if maybe say you are angry and then you want to express yourself for this person to hear you.. And in order for this person to hear this person what I am trying to say I will have to speak with my language.. Then you feel you want to express yourself in your own language because then he can understand you thoroughly..
But like when you speak English like.. It doesn’t feel alright because it is like he doesn’t hear you.. What you want to say.. It is more easy when you are speaking with your language.. You understand what I am saying?
I Ja.. English is like a more calm language.. You can like express yourself not so well in it..
R Yeah, when I am relax it doesn’t matter we are speaking English and it is alright.. Like I am speaking in
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English to you right now and it is alright.. But when I get angry.. I don’t want to speak English [smiles].. No I don’t want to speak English!
Does it happen often.. Or did it ever happen that somebody made you angry?
Ja sometimes you know we get different complaints here at the charge office, and sometimes we get complaints of people who wake up with a bad mood.. And they come in here, approach you very.. Rudely..
And then you are like fine and trying to calm this person down.. And try to understand what is going on..
Especially in the case of domestic violence.. Say this person is speaking in Afrikaans, and I am speaking
English.. I can understand Afrikaans and I speak little but like the sentence construction is not very good because.. I am like trying to speak Afrikaans as good as I can.. I did not speak Afrikaans in school.. I started working here in Potchefstroom and I find that people here only speak English and Afrikaans, so I had to learn
Afrikaans from 2000 and…. 5. So I have been learning little little little little.. So I cannot speak it fluently.. So when that person comes in, and he or she is very angry.. That the husband has assaulted her.. And then she wants to express herself, and her feelings in Afrikaans.. And then I cannot like.. Write and speak Afrikaans at the same time.. And then it becomes very difficult for like the both of us to compromise.. You understand what I am saying?
Yeah, I can imagine..
It becomes very difficult for us to compromise because now.. I want to understand her and I want to help her..I am supposed to help her.. Now I cannot help her because of the language barrier.. You understand me?
Yeah, I understand you..
R
I
Just like that it is quite difficult.. (…) is Afrikaans and the ones who help me say maybe like, when he opens a case of theft, it is a very easy thing that already happened and then he was angry but now he is fine and then he comes in here and he is speaking in Afrikaans, and then it doesn’t matter because at least the person is not angry anymore and I can listen then and try to understand them and otherwise let them explain once again what is that in English.. Ok that and that.. And then it is ok, then we are alright.. So then it is not a problem..
Ok.. Because then you write it in English? Or..
R In English.. Yes English.
I The reports all have to be in English..
R Yeah we were thought in English at the college..
I Yes, somebody told me.. Because.. Uhm.. You said you learnt Afrikaans here.. What is your first language?
R My first language?
I Yes.. In what language are you raised?
R The language that we like speaking at home? [smiles] We speak like three languages at home!
I
I
R
I Oh really?!
R Yes, because my mother is a Xhosa, my father is a Zulu, and then we attended at Tswana schools. So I can say my first language is my fathers’ language.
Ahh, ok.
Because we stayed at (…) and then the year (…) they took us to Tswana school. But at home, we speak Zulu and Xhosa. Zulu and Xhosa is like almost the same.. But not completely the same..
Ok.. Yeah yesterday I spoke to somebody and she said like, yeah, most of the African languages they are pretty much alike.
R Yes, it’s just that and that, that and that. In the Netherlands you speak Afrikaans also ne?
I No it is Dutch, Nederlands..
R Ja but it is pretty much like Afrikaans right?
I Yeah it is quite alike, I can understand a little Afrikaans..
R Ok so Tswana, Sutu and …Southern Sutu they are almost like the same.. And then when you speak like Swati,
Zulu and Xhosa, it is almost like.. And then (…Shangale…) which is different and (…Benda…).. And then..
What else.. But yeah it is almost the same..
I Yeah that is interesting, because I heard a few languages around here, and it is like.. It sounds so different..
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R [smiles] No but English and Afrikaans are totally different..
I
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I
Yeah, that is interesting.. I really didn’t know that they were so much alike.. Ok.. So the languages you speak in your functioning.. Do you use all of the languages.. Like the Xhosa, Zulu… Tswana..English…..? Do you use all of the languages in your functioning?
In the police office? Ohhh YES! If someone comes and speaks English, I speak English. If someone comes in that speaks Afrikaans, ok I compromise.. Like speak it a little.. Someone comes with Zulu.. If one speaks
Xhosa I speak Xhosa..
Ahh ok. And what language do you mainly speak with your colleagues?
R
I
Ohh ok we mainly speak Tswana.. Because most is like.. Is only.. four of Xhosa speaking people here in our shift.. So most of the people speak Tswana.
R
Ok. And does it differ? Like.. when to speak to a black colleague or a white colleague? Because the white people don’t often speak Tswana right?
Yeah it is different because they don’t know Tswana the most of them.. So with them we have to compromise mostly, and speak English.. But the most of the people again understand Afrikaans, and they speak both
Afrikaans and English..
Ok I see. And if somebody comes in.. In what language do you begin so to say? I
R
I
When he says (…Sambolany…) I know it is Zulu.. When somebody says good morning I know it is English..
So how a person greets you..
Ok, you adapt to that.. That is interesting
R [laughs]
I So I heard that the language policy of the police service says English only.. But, the more I think about it..
Isn’t that like.. Strange? Because you said you use like all of the different languages..
R Uhm.. No it is not strange because, in the college you are thought in English and like.. In most of African countries, like South African countries, it is the medium in schools.. We are like using English mostly. So it is not really a big thing for us.. We are thought this is school, we are used to it.. You go to Tswana class for only
30 minutes.. And then biology, mathematics.. Everything else is thought in English. When you go in police college, you are also thought in English.. Everything it was in English. Everything around you.. When we came back from the college, everything you see around you it was English.. It was English or Afrikaans.. But
I like mostly we prefer to use English because we are used to.. We like learn English from the early early early stages of our youth.. So it is more easy. We have learned Tswana in school.. But really the last time that I wrote in Tswana is like I don’t know.. Ten years ago.. Eleven years ago.. Serious.. I only write in English because I am used to.
Ok so then you stick to that.. Ok I understand.
R And like when you are communicating with friends on the phone it is like writing a message in Tswana.. It is like.. But mostly we use English.
I Ahh.. Ok. And then I also had some questions about.. When someone comes in, he can be seen as a ‘client’ because he is coming to you.. But you also have the offenders.. Like.. Maybe that is more.. Do you also have to deal with the offenders? Like when someone is stealing something, and you got a call from the radio room that you have to go somewhere.. Do you also do that?
R Do we arrest the suspects? Yes we do. But like, mostly when we are working inside.. There are others that work more often outside.. And they do everything outside.. But when you come in with a suspect, you go straight to the cell office. But when I am working outside, I am able to arrest a suspect.
I Ahh, I see. And have you arrested somebody often?
R Yes yes, on many occasions..
I Can you tell me something.. About how it works?
R Alright, so maybe you go to a complaint of shoplifting.. Already, the securities at that shop had arrested the suspect.. So when you go in there, you go to that Jet store, open a case docket.. Then arrest the person who was stealing, then you get a statement.. After the statement .. After the statement we will arrest him.. Then we tell them their rights and tell him or her that he is being arrested.. And then we tell all the rights, like the right
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” that he has the possibility to consult a legal practitioner, or if he doesn’t has one, the state will provide him with one.. And all those rights ne.. Explain to him WHY we arrest that person.. And then we take the person to the back there.. And we put them on assault.
I So after you receive the call from somebody..
R So after the complaint we are told to arrest a person, and that what happens most of the time..
I Ok.. And so in which language do you address a person then? Do you start in English? Or does it depend on what you see?
R Say, maybe that person is speaking Tswana.. We like normal address them in Tswana.. When you are reading the rights.. Of a person when they are written in English..But usual you just translate it to Tswana.. But if the person understands English, there is no need to translate.. You just read them. The rights.. And then they will understand it. And then they have to sign it..
I Ok, they have to sign for their rights?
R Yeah they have to sign for them.
I
R
I
R
I And did it ever happen that someone, like someone from Mozambique.. Because there they speak Portuguese right?
R Yes they speak Portuguese but also (…Shanggan…)
I Ok.. So but not like very common languages right? Then, what happens?
R
So generally it depends on the person that stands there..
Yeah. But if a person is speaking Afrikaans, you also have to explain to him all his rights.. But if he doesn’t understand his rights.. We translate it to English, we translate it to everything until he understands his rights. I he heard everything you said, they must just sign it.
[laughs] Like Chinese people that come inside also.. Like, most of them understand a little English.. And then you try to understand what is this person saying.. But like somewhere somehow.. Even if we don’t know what the person is saying.. But we always find a way to solve it. We just meet each other half way. Especially with the Chinese people, when they are having complaints, ohhh… It is difficult! They are a few of them in town, and I don’t know what language they speak, and then, it is a bit difficult when we have to attend their complaints. We cannot understand their English.. It is different.. We try to compromise.. But at least you hear what the person wants to say.. And then he also hears you. I don’t know how, but we WILL hear each other
[laughs]. Maybe it is body language, I don’t know how.. I don’t know; sound.. Language.. Anything..
Everything to explain.. Hands, eyes..
But that is good that you are trying so hard..
Yes we are trying, it is sometimes very difficult, but you know.. You don’t have a choice, you have to help this person.. And then, in order for you to help this person, you have to understand what he says.. You use everything.. You use hands you use eyes.. Everything.. The most difficult is a (…) language. Because I once had a complaint.. It was a couple and they were all speaking (…Sang…) language.. And we weren’t trained in
(…Sang…) language. You see.. And it was difficult but he.. The person was robbed, they were robbed.. It was difficult because I couldn’t understand all the signs that were given.. So like I tried to write a letter, they wanted to ask a question, they write a letter.. And he would write and I would write.. You see. I managed to help them, but that one was really challenging. That one was worse.. Worse worse worse worse! There was no common language so it was so difficult.. We were writing each other letters.. Then I give a letter to read, and then he will write to me..
I
R
So if like a Chinese person comes in.. Do you have like, ok this is going to be a though one..
Ja.. You feel like running away sometimes [laughs] really you feel like running away.. It is difficult.. It is only difficult with the Chinese people. The people that are coming from Mozambique, Swaziland, Namibia.. Is better, because they speak English. But if a Chinese person comes in oiiiiiiiiiii… You try to listen but you cannot understand what this person is saying.. So it is difficult, very difficult.
But still, with all the eleven official languages, I think you are doing a very good job.. I
R Jaa! We are trying to help people, that is the main reason for us people being here, to help people as much as you can..
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I
R
I
R
I think you are doing a very good job [smiles]. Ok.. I think I pretty much have it now.. Uhm.. As a final question, how do you feel about all of the languages being official? Wouldn’t it be more easy if it was like..
One language or two languages..?
Noooo! No no! That wouldn’t be fair.. We come from apartheid.. So we know how it feels, like, for one language to be official. No, it is pretty bad.. It is one of our rights you see.. All the language must be used equally.
Yeah, that is why I am questioning the whole.. Like the Constitution says, eleven official languages, and I support it, but if they do the training like in English only.. The policy is according to me as it is in mainly
English.. It is like.. Yeah.. When I talk to you and the police officers, everyone is trying to adjust to the situation, so in practice it is working out just fine.. But it is kind of strange to me then, that the policy is about
English only..
I don’t know.. You know, we always had this belief that with English you go like everywhere.. When we were young, we were like.. Maybe I want to see myself at the London, England, the United States of America.. So for you to like go there, you have to understand English. We didn’t know mostly about other countries, we like didn’t know they existed.. So mainly we like focus on that English ones.. Because our oppressors, they came from Australia, London, England.. You know.. So we were like used to English. We were made to belief that, in order for you to get a job, you need English. If you want to get employment you must speak English. People who had the economy in their hands were the English people, the Afrikaans people. So when you want to go out and work for a big company, you must know English. So it was mainly those things. We had no other choice those days. There were not many black people with big businesses. So you had to like know English for your life to be safe and to keep your children alive you have to know English. But now.. Things have changed ne.. Black people are also in business, things have changed. But it is still in our mindset that we have to know
English. In the beginning you only had the big white bosses.. So you had no choice. You were told by your grandmother that you have to know English in order to succeed in life.. In the earliest stages of our lives we still teach our children English today.. Like my child is now four years old ne.. My child can speak Tswana, it can speak in Zulu, and also he can speak English.
I
I Only four years, and speaking so many languages already..
R Ja.. And now that I have stayed in Potchefstroom for more years I am also speaking in Tswana. But really, it depends if you wake up in the morning, what language am I going to speak [laughs]..
I Like, what am I going to wear, which language am I going to speak [smiles]… Ok.. Thank you very much for your honesty and openness.. I have all the information I need now..
FINALIZATION
Interview 6, 28-03-2012, 08:35 – 08:57
Adia, African female, 9 years within SAPS, Sergeant
Interview in complaints desk and other people passing by (no option for closed room)
I INTRODUCTION
I First, can you tell me something about your career within the police so far? Because you are now a police officer?
R Yes..
I And for how long have you been a police officer?
R I’ve been here for eight years now.. In September I’ll be nine years in the Service..
I Ok.
R Yeah it is fine but.. I feel like I have to move to a new thing.. Because I have been in the charge office for eight years now.. So I need to move to a new thing. Because I have been here for a long time.
I Ok. And you have been in the same function for..
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
R For the eight years.. Yeah.. I think of moving to (…caught…)
I Ok.. And is this new function in Potchefstroom then or is this in another area.
R No it is here, in Potchefstroom.
I Ok.. And have you already discussed that? With like.. Your manager or something?
R Yeah I am just waiting for our discussion to be finalized.. But I uhm.. I think next month I’ll be starting there.
I Ok. Well that is nice.. Then you have something to look forward to.
R Yeah, I can’t wait [smiles]
I [smiles] Ok.. And why did you join the Police Service, nine years ago?
R Almost nine.. I started working here because I was luckily enough to be employed here. So it was because I liked the job. Like helping other people with their problems..
I And that is what you do here.. So that was a good choice.. Ok. Can you tell me what an ordinary day within the
Police looks like for you.. What are your tasks?
R Ja it can get very busy.. Very very busy. We take statements, we open cases, we certify documents, AND solve people’s problems. Then they will come at the office to report an assault or domestic violence or something..
And then we help them.
I Ok. And are there things like.. You see very often? Because I heard like.. A lot of people are making complaints of domestic violence.. Do you hear it very often?
R Ja I can say that.. They are reported quite often.. Domestic violence.. Domestic violence is top of the list.
I Ok.. But.. Is it like.. That not everyone dares to come to the police?
R Hmm
I I mean, all the reports you get in, from the domestic violence.. Like, probably not everyone dares to come to report her husband to the police of the violence..
R Ja, you find that after people become abused for a very long time.. They come here after four or five years they have been abused. So… Maybe they are scared of something.. I don’t know. But they often come here after it has been going on for.. A very long time.
I Ok.. And how do you try to anticipate on that? To make sure that people more come to the police office right away? And that is doesn’t happen anymore that someone comes here after.. Six years or something?
R Hmm.. Right now I don’t think there is something that is set to make people aware of that.. But maybe the people that come here to report them.. We tell them to tell to their friends that they have to come here if they have problems with that..
I I see.. And that is all you really can do I guess..
R Yeah..
I Because you can’t just walk into their houses right..
R Yeah. Because of.. There is also a program.. As specific police program.. That deals with domestic violence, and what you have to do when you have been abused in your home. So, we hope that people hear about that, so that they can come to us.. So we can help them..
I Ok.. I see. And now we are in the station, and you have to do complaints today.. What is your task going to be today?
R Today I am working here inside the charge office, and we wait for people to come to us. To report an accident or to open a case docket. Ja.. We wait for them to come here. There are people working outside for if they have to attend to.. The radio room tells them to go to that place. But we are working inside. When I go outside, I go to attend complaints.
I Ok, so you also work outside then? On other days?
R Most of the times we are working inside.. But SOMETIMES outside. If there is a need..
I And is there something you like better? Do you like it more to stay inside? Or do you prefer to go outside?
R It really doesn’t matter. I can go anywhere. It really doesn’t matter, outside or inside, they are all the same. We are attending complaints, we are opening dockets.. I think the only difference is that those people go outside to open the dockets, and here the people come to us. So it is almost the same.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
I Ok. I understand. That is clear to me now.. Ok, the languages.. Can you tell me in which language you are raised? What is your first language?
R It is Tswana..
I Ok, so you are from around here? In Potchefstroom?
R Ja. Yeah the dominating language is Tswana.
I Ok. And what other languages do you speak? English..
R Yeah English.. Tswana.. Sesothu.. I can understand IsiZulu.. and Xhosa.. I cannot speak that.. But I can hear what they are saying. But I cannot respond in their language. And Afrikaans.
I You can understand it?
R Ja. I can understand it. I can speak a little bit. Because the people that are coming here, most of them are
Afrikaans. So we’ve learned from those people and I am doing my best to speak their language.. But I can understand it.
I Ok. And do you try to switch to English then? If an Afrikaans person is coming in? Or do you try to make a report in English? UHH Afrikaans I mean..
R No. Even if somebody is speaking to me in Afrikaans, the report that I am going to write will be in English. I can be speaking English and he can be speaking Afrikaans, and then we can also understand each other.
Because the important thing for us is that we are able to communicate and we are able to understand each other.
So if he can speak Afrikaans and I can speak English its fine. Because mostly I am communicating like that.
I Ok. And what language do you most often speak with your colleagues? When you are having a break or something..
R Tswana.
I Ok..
R That is OUR language... We don’t mix. We don’t speak any other language, except that one.
I Ok, I see. And if the colonel that brought me here [refer to white, Afrikaans speaking female], she speaks
Afrikaans and English.. So you talk to her in English then..?
R In English. She..She..She..She… Cannot… Speak English like.. She doesn’t understand some of the words in
English. So most of the time, she is speaking Afrikaans. And I’ll be speaking English. And then we understand each other.
I And does it ever happen that someone comes in here, and speaks a language you don’t understand? Like, I
R heard a few people say that there are sometimes Chinese people? Is it more difficult for you to talk to them?
Ja, you know.. I can say that Chinese.. It is a bit difficult. Because they are trying to speak English, but.. Still.. I cannot hear what they are trying to say. So what they usually do.. They come with somebody that can speak
English for them. So that person will be the interpreter between us. So, they have realized that we don’t know their language. And even if they try to speak English, we can still not understand what they are saying. So they usually come with somebody that can interpret.
I Ok, I understand. And do you also have interpreters within the Police Service? Or are they..
R No we don’t. But I remember one day, there was a guy here, and he came to make a report. He was uhm.. assault. He was deaf. And we really couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. We had to go to Kacheng to fetch his girlfriend, so she could speak. So we had to go there and bring his girlfriend here, so we can communicate.
I Ok. So that must be a difficult case of course when you have to communicate..
R Yeah..
I Ok.. And Kacheng you said? Where is that?
R Kacheng is the township.
I Oh ok. And is there another police..
R Ja in Kacheng.
I Ok.
R Ja but is serves the people that are staying there. But here in Potchefstroom you are only serving the people that
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” are staying here. So that is why we have two police stations. Because Kacheng is also a big place and
Potchefstroom is also a big place.
I Ok..
R Uhm may I ask you something?
I Yes, please, anything..
R What language do you speak there [refers to Netherlands]?
………………………….[little conversation about the Netherlands]…………………………….
I In the Netherlands we have only Dutch as an official language, but if you speak English you will manage as well, almost everyone speaks English.
R So you have only two languages?
I Officially one.. yes..
R I like to stay here.. I don’t speak all of the eleven languages, but at least I speak Sesothu, Zulu, Xhosa, and I understand a little bit of Venda and that is at least four of them.. Out of eleven..
I Yeah, and at least everybody is free to express himself in his own language, and that is.. Very unique and also interesting… In the Netherlands you really feel that people are becoming afraid of the Turkish and Moroccan people because they are Islamic.. And the Netherlands is a Catholic and Protestant country.. So they are a bit afraid or something.. And therefore immigrants have to adjust, so that are not so scary anymore or something..
R Ok.. And do you have criminality there? And what sort of crimes?
…………………….[little conversation about criminality in Netherlands]……………………….
I As a police officer you don’t interrogate people? Or question them after you arrested them?
R No that is what the detectives do. After we arrest people, we are handing them to the detectives. But we complete all the forms, and then hand them to the detectives. They do the charging, and they take them to court..
I And that is also probably why you have to write everything in English right?
R Yeah because everyone here can understand English. So English is the main language.
I Ok.. And if you are like.. Out in the streets, and you have to approach somebody.. You have to address somebody.. What language do you often use?
R Is it is a Tswana speaking person, I speak Tswana. If it is an Afrikaan, I can try to speak the language, but I usually use English, because then they also respond. Even if they respond in Afrikaans, then we can still understand each other.
I Ok, I see. Your colleague told me something about the rights, that if you have to tell someone their rights, that they are all in English then?
R No, you can say them in any language.. If somebody is speaking Tswana you can say it in Tswana.
I And then they have to sign for it right?
R Yes. They explain the rights to him.
I Ok.. So now we talked about what language you use when you are speaking with your colleagues, clients and offenders.. Where do you experience most of the difficulties? Or do you adjust to it and get used to it?
R No.. No.. Because if the person you are speaking to does not understand the language you are speaking, you resolve to that. If a person is Afrikaans I adjust to it, and otherwise we look for a solution.. There IS going to be a way you can communicate to that person.. There is no way I am going to struggle with anyone. Even if there is someone from Nigeria, even with them I can speak English. So we can still communicate with them.
I Ok, so you always find a way..
R Ja..
I Ok that is what I generally got from this conversation.. I think I have all the information I need now.. Do you have any further questions or remarks?
R No…No..
I FINALIZATION
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
Interview 7, 29-03-2012, 08:00 – 08:12
Andre, White male, 21 years within SAPS, Warrant Office
Interview in closed office
I
R
I
I
INTRODUCTION
Ok, there we go. For how long have you been in the Police?
R 21 years.
21 years? That is quite a while.. And you started as a police officer?
Directly straight from the college. Then I went to the stability division, you know with the riot control, people working on locations with the shot guns.. I was working for them.. Yeah.. From then.. I joined the crime prevention.. And from crime prevention I joined shifts of the sector polisie, and now I am at the firearm and liquor office.
I
R
Ok.. And what do you do on a daily basis?
Inspect the liquor outlets, issue some liquor licenses, issue some tickets on liquor premises that not comply with the act..
I Ok, I see.. And why did you want to join the Police Service 21 years ago?
R I was born a police man.
I
R
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Really? How can you tell?
I would like.. Uhm.. I am so into safety. Keeping people safe and wanting everybody to be safe.. That is why I joined the police in the first place.
Ah ok I see. Then you are in the right place.. What sort of reports do you normally get in?
Reports? It all depends what kind of complaints we receive from the public, regarding liquor outlet. It depends on what kind of complaints you receive, then you automatically decide what sort of outlet it is and to what report you will comply.
Oh ok. So is it that like when for example about the liquor, a person is drunk in the street or something.. I
R Yeah you see it is about license, keeping up with the license, conditions.. You are not allowed to sell before ten in the morning or certain places are not allowed to sell after two in the morning. Now the other problem is that you are not allowed to sell to intoxicated people as well. And certain places don’t comply with it because they only want the money.. So we need to enforce it.. That’s why.. All these contact crimes, keep on rising because it is related.. Contact crimes and liquor. It relates to one another.
I I see.. And then you are also involved in the firearms?
R I am not directly involved in that. It is my colleagues who specialize in that.
I
R
Ok. Now I have sort of an idea what you do on a daily basis.. Ok, about the languages..
Ok we speak normally English in the office. But it is a diverse country.. So sometimes people speak Tswana,
Xhosa.. I don’t speak it fluently but I can understand it when they talk. Due to my experience in the field, I used to work with them, and listen properly. When they do a complaint I listen when they are speaking. I can assist myself in foreign languages. I cannot write it fluently and I cannot speak it fluently.. But I can understand it. So it is helping a bit. Communication is very important. You need to have an idea where they talk about, so we can understand what the problem is. Otherwise, we can’t communicate on the same level.
Ok, so when you address someone in the street.. I
R It all depends on who am I addressing.. Is it an Afrikaans speaking person is it an African speaking person or am I addressing an English speaking guy.. It all depends on what language he prefers to speak. Then I try to address him in his language. Out of respect.
Ok, so then you adjust to that person. I
R Exactly.
I And what language do you most often speak with your colleagues?
R Afrikaans. I am a born Afrikaan.
I Ok. So you mainly speak Afrikaans and English?
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I
R
R Afrikaans and English. Yes, that is the languages we speak normally.
I Ok. And the reports you have to make?
R
I
R
English. The reports is English ja. It is to communicate in different languages and in a proper language everybody understands. A common language. Because most of the people working here in this office and the provincial office is Africans. And they cannot speak Afrikaans that fluently. Due to the past. So they speak
English, that is why we communicate in English. To assist one another.
And did it ever happen that you wanted to speak to someone in the streets that doesn’t speak English..
Afrikaans..
It happened. So then we had to get a translator. To assist us with the problem. But if it is not available.. You need to take the guy to a certain place to obtain the assistance in the certain language he understands. Because some of the people that is foreign.. Like Zimbabwans or Mozambiquans can’t even understand English. So is it better to get people that understand our language.. That understand us. So it differs the situation.. But still..
We can assist them.
But don’t you think that it is more difficult then?
Yes, it is. Definitely. Because you see.. It lengthens the whole process.. Because you need to take more steps..
To assist the guy in the proper language.. Normally it would take five minutes that the problem could have been solved.. Now five minutes become half an hour.. So it is time consuming.. So it is for the best interest of everybody, to learn some other languages. So we can communicate in other languages as well. So it is for the benefit of everybody.
I
R
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R
So do you think it would be a good thing if everybody would speak the four main languages that are being spoken around here?
Certainly. It would be a benefit to everybody. So I would suggest that everybody must be trained.. In all four languages.
Ok.. So here there is like the policy is mainly English right?
Yes we use English normally, but now we get more foreigners coming to South Africa. So the problem is that most of the foreign people can’t speak the language we normally used to speak. They don’t know how to present themselves in that language. They do understand it, but they can’t communicate in it. So it might be incriminating to them. And that is when the lack of communication goes up. They can’t communicate in
English. They don’t come here and say “Hee, I have information about this crime”, because they don’t know the language. So they can see a crime happen, but they can’t say it to us. So that is where most of the information goes lost. Lack of communication.
I So it also endangers the society?
R Exactly.
I
R
Ok. And do you also know.. Like.. The people I spoke so far all know the four languages.. Do you know if there are also people that say.. No, I stick to English..
Na you see there are people that is going against the (…will..)… But the majority rules. And that is it. If you can’t beat them you must join them. So you better learn the language, or stay behind.
I Otherwise you just can’t function..
R Exactly. Here is it very important to communicate. So you have to join them.
I I see. And it is an important aspect right..
R Yes it certainly is.
I
R
I see. Uhm… Ok.. That is pretty much it already.. Generally speaking, how do you feel about the eleven official languages?
Really, I think it is in favor of all. It is more easy to speak in your mother language rather than to communicate in another language you are not comfortable with. So it would be easier for me to communicate in the language that I understand best. With which I was grown and born with. So I would suggest to give everybody training in at least four languages, for the benefit of everybody. Because we are in a public service.
I Exactly. Because if you only stick to two languages or something..
R It is lack of communication. Because there is so many people that is coming to the country now. Like I used
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I
I to speak Duits in school. I think grade nine or grade ten I used to speak Duits. But I forgot all about it, because I use it for like a month.. And there I did it because I must to do it.. For school.. There was no need for me to study that language, but I needed to do it for school and so I did it. But I would like to learn the
Duits language better.
Ok, that is all clear. Do you have any further questions for me?
FINALIZATION
Interview 8, 29-03-2012, 09:10 – 09:20
Stefan, White male, 11 years within SAPS, Constable
Interview in closed office
I INTRODUCTION
I Ok, can you tell me something about your function? What do you do here?
R I am in the office. This is all typical registration. All the filing of this station.. Docket store.. And so on. So I am not (…).
I Ok. So it is more an administrative job?
R Yes administrative.
I Ok. And for how long have you been in the Police Service?
R Uhm.. By now for almost eleven years.
I Ok. And did you start as a police officer?
R Yes I started as a police officer.
I Ok. And have you done that for a long time?
R Since I started up till now..
I Oh, ok.. So you are also still in the streets?
R No.. No.. Not outside anymore.. Sometimes I work outside but that is only on special occasions.
I Ok I see. Sorry, I did not really hear it because of the printer.. But you are mainly about.. The..
R I am mostly about the administrative side of.. The Police. All filing (…). If HRM needs a document on something of training or transfers or so.. They request the file from us. So we sort of assist them. But we keep track of the files so nothing gets lost.
I And do you also work in the shifts here?
R No I myself we work office hours. But at the station.. How can I say.. They people that work outside.. They work in shifts. And now they are working for twelve hours.
I Yes from seven to seven I heard..That is long days! Ok.. And why did you join the Police Service eleven years ago?
R Well.. I studied before.. And then I finished studying.. Then I came to the Service.. What can I say.. It is more..
To start out with something.. I wanted to work for a state department.. And that must have been the main reason..
I I see.. Ok.. Then, now I would like to ask something about the languages.. What is your first language?
R It is Afrikaans.
I Ok, so you were raised in Afrikaans..
R Yes..
I Ok and what other languages do you speak?
R Afrikaans then.. German.. I can understand.. Still a bit..
I Ok that is interesting.. Did you study that or something?
R Yes I learned during my education. Yeah I find it interesting.. Always.. Been interested in German.
I Ok.. I see. And what languages do you use in your office the most?
R Mostly English.
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
I Ja, when you are talking to your colleagues?
R Ja..
I Ok.. And does it differ whether you are talking to a black or a white colleague?
R No.. Our white colleagues they speak mostly Afrikaans. So with them I speak Afrikaans. But in meetings the official language is actually English.
I And the reports, you also write them in English?
R Ja, English English English.
I Ok. And do you ever experience difficulties? Like when you spoke to someone in Afrikaans, but when you have to report something you have to write it in English.. Isn’t that like..
R Yeah I find myself that it is sometimes a problem to translate things into English.. But I guess that.. I can say..
The way in which a white person speaks English.. The black guys.. They don’t always understand it in the context we mean.. You know.. Sometimes they understand you wrongly.. Because you mean something else..
But.. So even when we are speaking English this happens.
I Ok.. I see.. These questions [refer to topic list] are also for the police officers that go outside..Like, what language they speak to somebody in the streets.. But I guess you don’t really have to deal with that.. Right..?
R That’s true.. But I can tell you that the black people most often speak English.
I Ok.. And you just adjust to what you see right..?
R Ja..
I Ok.. Because do you consider it an important aspect of your work? Communication?
R Ja ja, definitely! I think it is one of the most important ones.. Because if you can’t communicate you don’t know what people’s complaints are about.. And in here on the phone.. If you can’t understand somebody, you have a problem.. So the language issue is definitely one of the most important things.
I Ok.. And did you ever experience that someone is coming in that doesn’t understand English or Afrikaans..?
R Ja.. Ja.. [phone rings, respondent answers in Afrikaans].. Some kind of crisis..
I Oh ok.. Uhm.. What happens if someone is speaking no English of Afrikaans? What happens?
R It happens, for example when a black person is calling, they often only speak Tswana.. And then we have to involve someone to interpret.. But I don’t work with people from the public you know.. I think that downstairs, where they take the complaints and so.. There they might have some problems..
I Yeah because yesterday I was talking to somebody about a Chinese guy who spoke Chinese only.. So I think then it becomes difficult..Ok.. So how do they instruct you.. The police training.. It is in English.. right?
R Ja..
I Ok.. And do they say you may only use English or you have to adjust to the situation.. Or.. Learn all of the eleven languages.. I hope not [smiles]
R [laughs] Oh no.. No no no.. There is no pressure on us to learn any of the other languages.. So I think mainly that is why they go with the English you know.. And also because.. The African.. But also the Afrikaans people speak English so.. It is the basic language we all understand..
I Ok.. So.. Generally speaking.. No problems..
R No.. No no no.
I Ok.. Well, that is good to hear right.. Ok.. So this was it already.. Do you have any further questions for me?
I FINALIZATION
Interview 9, 29-03-2012, 09:35 – 09:57
Interview in common room with prisoners
Abedi, African male, 21 years within SAPS, Constable/cell guard
I INTRODUCTION
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
R …languages. But the official ones is Afrikaans and English. But yeah we use it say.. Everywhere.
I Ok.. But first, can you tell me something about your function, and what do you do here?
R My function here? Uhm.. My function here is to look for.. Or to guard the.. Prisoners. I give them food, checking if they are alright.. If they are ill we take them to a hospital.. Until they are taken to court. And we also check if their time is expired. We must check that they are not here for a too long time. Specifically 48 hours.
I Ok, and after those 48 hours they get released then?
R No no they go to court then.
I Oh ok, to court, I see..
R Or if they are not charged they are released then.
I Ok. And how many cells do you have behind here?
R They are seven.
I Ok, and are they all occupied at the moment?
R Yes all of them are occupied. One of them is for the ladies, and the other six are for the men. No juveniles. No, we don’t have juveniles here.
I Ok. And is that normal that all of the cells are occupied? Or..
R Yes, always they are occupied. Sometimes they are full, sometimes they are a few people.. Like there can be seven or eight.. So at the moment they are not full.
I Ok.
R Yes, but they are always full during the weekend. When people come in.. They are not charged on Saturday and
Sunday. Then they are not taken to court, that is why they become full.
I Ok. So in the weekends it is busy..
R Yes in the weekends it is very busy.
I Ok. And do you also work in the shifts? Like from seven to seven?
R Yes yes yes, we also work from seven to seven. It is from seven o’clock in the morning until seven o’clock in the evening.
I Ok.
R Then the other shifts take over on seven in the evening.. And we work four shifts a week.
I Ok. And can you tell me, what do you do in a normal day.. You take care of the prisoners..
R Yes I am taking care of the inmates that are here, those who are waiting for being charged.. Those who we are taking to the court, and receiving the new ones that are coming in. And that is basically what I am doing.
I Ok. So you don’t have to interrogate them?
R No no no. The interrogation is done by the detectives.
I Ok. And is that also happening in this building? Or do they do that somewhere else?
R No they are interrogated.. No it is actually they are only being charged here. That is when they are charged then they prepare them to go to court. We are taking their fingerprints and ask them if they know what they are being arrested for.. And.. If he is having a lawyer or not. If he doesn’t have a lawyer he must get legal aid from the court. That is the lawyer is provided by the government. Interrogation, we don’t do it.
I Ok, I understand. And is this also because the most crimes that are committed here are theft and..
R Yeah theft is the highest I think.. Murder is not so much and.. Theft and assault, that is the most.. They are the most committed ones. Shoplifting is very often.. But murder is not so much.. Maybe four or three for the month.
I Ok, I see. And for how long have you been in the Police Service?
R Pff.. Uhm.. I think it is 21 years now.. And I am tired [smiles]
I [smiles] After that long I understand..
R Because there is so much.. You know if we are working with people like here in the cells.. They are.. It is..
They have been arrested for many times let’s say.. They become aggressive, they think they know much.. They don’t want to go to court.. So they tell lie about you. They can say that you have taken your money, that you
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” have beaten them.. That is accusations that we get from them.. And.. Like.. If they tell you don’t know if it really is the truth.. But after interrogating them they will find out that they are lying. That is what they do and I am tired of that.
I I can imagine..
R Of being accused of something that you didn’t do. And you know others they are rude. Or others are.. They don’t care. They will fight with you or they can injure you.. That is really what I am saying.
I Ok so it is a really tough job..
R Yes a very tough job.
I Ja I can imagine.. But for how low are you specifically doing this job?
R Which one.. The one with the cells? Uhm.. Here it is about a year.. Because I was.. I went to Johannesburg, and there I was working in the charge office.. And then I worked in a station in Klerksdorp, where I did this job with the cells only for two days. But there the inmates were not so mean like this. Because when they are from court they are taken to the prison. So here they come back again.. And that is why they are so mean.
[in the meanwhile prisoners enter the room, talk through fence with visitors.]
I Ok. And why did you join the Police Service 21 years ago?
R I was desperate.
I Really?
R Yes you know there was.. I was a nurse first.. And I was working at the mines.. Then later I decided to go to the
Police. They gave a training, and the student must been taken to the hospital or the clinic, and they were running short of members. So then they recruit me.. And that is how I ended up in the Police.
I Ok.. So it was more out of.. Really need that you.. Needed a job then that you..
R Ja.. Because by the time I was working very far from my home.. And joining these people was nearer. The college was closed for uhm… And I was hired because of I had to help the trainees. When they were injured or when they need some medication.. Or.. We were helping them there. So after that I was taken to another place..
That was Pretoria.. They were training at Pretoria. That is when I.. Because (…) Police only.. But to work as a nurse it is tiring.. At times you get people with broken (…) or they are ill or maybe they are dying.. Here it is better. Even though it is stressful here when we have to handle a person that is drunk or a person that is aggressive... Or a person who… There is so many things.. But let’s say a person can commit.. If a person ends his life.. We have to deal with all of that.. And it is.. stressful.
I And that is all part of your job..
R Yes it is a part of my job so I can take it..
I Ok.. But are there also nice things about your job?
R Do you mean that is there anything I like about the working? Yeah I also like it.. Even if it is not so much.. You know I don’t like it is people steal things from me or family things.. And that is why they are being arrested or taken to court.. But.. So if they brought someone here, it makes me happy that something is done to protect other people. That is why I like the Police. That is why I like to be here. Because, if I say I don’t want this job..
Who is going to do it? So someone must do it.. That is why I am doing it.. That is why I like it.
I You are doing a good job for the community, that’s for sure.
R Yes that is why I am doing it.
I Ok. Uhm.. Than about the languages. What is your first language?
R My language is Tswana.
I Ok, so you are from around here?
R Yes, the North West. Mafikeng.
I Ok. And what other languages do you speak? English..
R Ja English.. And Afrikaans.
I Ok. And what language do you most often speak with your colleagues?
R Uhm.. It is both. It can be .. Mostly here? If it is black people, then I use my Tswana language. When it is white people, I use English or Afrikaans. So both of them. But that is determined by the person who you are talking
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R to. Like, you can’t talk Tswana can you [laughs]
I [smiles] No I can’t, then it is going to be a difficult interview I’m afraid.. Ok, so you adjust. That’s logical. Ok.
And to the people that come in here? In the cells? What language do you speak with them?
R Yeah all different.. If it is Xhosa I try to speak to them.. If it is Zulu I try that.. I always can make clear what I want or what I need from them.. You have to understand each other that is why we communicate.
I Ok. And did it ever happen that like somebody from Mozambique.. Someone who speak Portuguese..
R Yeah they do come here.. Because we have one cell that is for the illegal’s. They don’t have a passport. And then someone from them must know English. And then we do it like that.
I Ok, so you mean as a translator..
R Yes translator ja..
I Ok.. And do you ever feel it makes your job more difficult? All of the different languages?
No no no.. We all have to deal with it. All of the people that work here have to deal with it. They are around here.. They are around here. It was only when I was working at the (…). There we had some people that we didn’t know how to speak to them. Even others they don’t use the language they want to talk.. They don’t know that language. But they do know that they don’t want to be arrested.. Or to be interrogated.. They use that other language.. Like the.. Ethiopians. They will talk with hands.. Because then they are aggressive.. Because it is the second time they are being arrested.. And when we want to sign them anything, they are like.. They think we want to cheat them.. That we are doing things that we are not supposed to do. And when they come in they are aggressive.. Very very aggressive. Especially Nigerians. They are very aggressive.
I Ok.. So it is even more difficult when they are in the cells..
R No in the cells here there is no problem.. The only thing you have to be careful for is that you must work together. If you don’t work together.. The other will do this and the other will do this..
I Ok.. You are trained in English.. Right? In the Police college?
R Yes.. Yes in English.
I And is there like a policy or something? That says you may only use English..
R No no no.. Because at times when.. You are talking to someone from another.. Tribe.. You all communicate in
English because you all know what they said. It is a common language.
I Ok. And how do you feel about all of the eleven languages being official?
R It is good. It is very nice. Yes it is good.. Because at times you.. You want to learn the other languages.. But at times it is difficult.. But the formula is good. That you can use the other languages.
I Ok.. Thank you.. For the research I have pretty much all of the information now.. But I am actually also a bit curious.. About how it was when you was working.. Before.. You know it was 1994.. With the..
R Hmm.. Uhm.. Ja…
I I can turn the tape recorder off if you..
R Yeah.. ja..
Interview continues off record. Guard tells about what it was like to work in the apartheid days. It was very hard. Once he was working, one of his white colleagues made a mistake. The white colleague blamed the respondent of the mistake, and he got punished for it. It was very hard times. The guard implies that he does not really want to talk about it by looking away and giving short answers. In the meanwhile, prisoners are walking around in the same room as where the interview was held. That influenced me as an interviewer of being more on guard, and the guard of being very distracted as well.
Interview 10, 30-03-2012, 08:00 – 08:16
Karl, White male, 9 years within SAPS (worked for eight years, then left the SAPS for personal reason (divorce), and is back now for one year), Sergeant.
Interview in closed office
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
I INTRODUCTION
[First part of the interview was not taped. Technical malfunction]
R English is the language we use.
I But then in the streets.. How do you address people there? Also in English?
R Yeah there is also people who also speak English.. But uhm.. Because I am an Afrikaans person.. Sometimes you will see that a person is more fluently in Afrikaans.. Or he’ll speak back in Afrikaans to you.. And then I switch my language to Afrikaans because then we understand each other better.. And uhm.. Most of the time that is the language we speak to people. And other languages as well.. They know, if they want me to understand them, they must talk to me in English because I don’t know any other languages.. And that’s the way.
I Ok.. And do you always go in couples? When you are going outside?
R Ja. It is better to do it that way, because if something happens you will always have a backup with you.. And also a witness with you. Because these people can accuse you of something that you did what you didn’t do..
And if you got a witness with you, then it strengthens your case at the end of the day.
I Yeah? Is that a problem that you get accused of things?
R Ah it happens sometimes when you catch someone doing something wrong they will always try to backup their case.. They will accuse you of doing something wrong, like you took something from them.. And if you got a witness with you who can say you didn’t do it, it can strengthen your case at the end of the day. But it doesn’t happen too often.. It is just to be on the safe side.
I
R
I
Oh ok. And do you also think.. Who says with who you are going on patrol that day? Do you have like.. One couple or partner.. Or do you change..
Ja we switch the partners because you mustn’t get too used to each other. But you must also trust each other.
If you don’t trust each other than it is not working. But uhm.. All we are working in a team together.. And we look after each other.
Ok. But do they take into account than that you for example that you speak mainly English and Afrikaans..
That they send you with somebody that also speaks Tswana? Or..
R Now he will speak Tswana but he also will speak English. So most of my colleagues that work with me is fluently in English.. And I know a few of them that doesn’t speak Afrikaans.. And then I speak to them in
English.. And that is the way our conversation goes.
R
I
I Ok.. But they don’t keep it specifically in mind or something.. That you have a couple that is a multilingual as possible?
R No..no.. It just depends on who you are working with that day..
I Ok.. So in your functioning you use both of the languages.. Obviously..
Yes, English and Afrikaans I use both of them. It just depends on who the complainant is.. If it is an Afrikaans speaking person I speak Afrikaans to you, if it is an English speaking person I’ll speak English to them.
Ok.. And do you also work in the complaints office?
I
R
R The CIC? The Crime Office?
I Yes..
R Ja I work together with them.. For complaints.. But they only call us if they need backup there.. Because they are competent enough to deal with any complaint.. But if it is a very busy day, and they haven’t got the manpower to help the people, then they will call us to come in there. But our main function is crime prevention. So sitting behind the desk there.. That is not crime prevention.. We are helping the people with the service we are delivering. And we must be in the streets, because that is where the criminals are. That is our main objective.
Ok, that’s clear. And what kind of crimes do you see most often?
House breaking.. Theft.. Theft of motor vehicle.. And then you have the crimes we call petty crimes. Drunken driving.. Drunkenness.. Drinking in public.. Urinating in public.. People with illegal drugs.. And that stuff.
But most theft, housebreaking theft, and theft of motor vehicles.
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I Ok.. And you say most often.. How often is that?
R It depends.. One week you will see that the housebreaking is going up.. And then you arrest two or three people and then it goes down again.. And also the most common one is assault. It is very common for people coming out of these party places, where they have been drinking.. And then they assault each other by the influence of alcohol.. So that is our main problem. So that is why we also concentrating on those people as well.
I Ok.. And is that a specific area then?
R No because all of the drink houses you have them all over town.. It is not concentrated to one certain area. So from the north to the south, from the east to the west.. They are plenty of them.. 50 or 60.. And you must have a look at them all, to see where the problems are. We have got our problem areas and we concentrate on them on specific hours and when there is a party closing and the people are leaving.. You know when the people are getting drunk, so you concentrate on those areas to combat the crime there.
I Ok.. That is pretty much it for me already.. As a final question.. Generally.. How do you feel about the eleven languages being official? Do you think it is good? Or do you say like.. In practice it doesn’t work..
R You see.. It is a good thing.. To take other people’s languages in consideration as well.. Because that is their culture.. And we must live with that culture as well.. We are all part of South Africa.. We are all here.. And it does not help if one wants to work the other one out. And that is why we must accept it. As I said.. I don’t force my language to another person.. And so he mustn’t force his on to me. And we have got our official language English, and if he wants to speak to me, that is the medium we will take.. But I think it is a good thing, that all of the languages and all of the cultures must still exist.. Because they must not die.. Because the heritage is there, the culture is there.. They must look after it. Because in twenty years or thirty years from now.. Those children that are there then need to know what happened.. Where they are coming from..
Exactly.. Ok.. So it’s a good thing [smiles] I
R [smiles] Ja to me it’s a good thing.. But as I said.. I have my languages that I speak.. And.. That is it.
I Ok.. So you don’t really see that as a problem then..
I
R No.. Not for me. Because we must take all people in consideration.
I Ok.. Sorry not exactly the final question [smiles].. But if somebody doesn’t speak English or Afrikaans.. And
R he is coming from Mozambique, what happens then..
Then we will get a tolk.. An interpreter.. That will interpret what we want to know from him and what he wants to know from us. We’ve got interpreters in court.. Ok at night that is sometimes difficult.. Because you have people that also don’t understand that language.. But most of them they are speaking rough English..
Which is difficult to understand.. But some of the other cultures they understand him. So you just bring them to the station, and they will find someone that will talk to you.. And then they can help you with that. To bring
I your point to him or his point to you..
Ok.. So one way or another..
R Ja.. We will survive.. We will help him [smiles]
FINALIZATION
Interview 11, 30-03-2012, 08: 20 – 08:29
Issay, African male, 28 years within SAPS, Sergeant
Interview in closed office
I INTRODUCTION
I Can you tell me something about your job. What do you do on a daily basis?
R On a daily basis.. I take the documents to court.. This documents are from the CAC [points at one pile of reports], this documents are from the people who are being arrested.. So this documents are for the people who have to appear in court.
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I Ok, so these documents are the ones that are filled in by the police officers when somebody is arrested?
R Yes when somebody is arrested for petty offences.. Not for serious offences.. If serious offences are done..
These are not (…completed…).. The docket is being registered.. Written and open.. and (…registered…) And who he is and where he is of suspected, who he killed and (….) and then he is taken to court. (…) like traffic offences and fighting.. Or exchanging words or what not.. The other one is not satisfied and
(………………..…) to appear in court within a very short period of time. And they may pay a fine.. Or.. Ja..
I Ok. And for how long are you in the Police Service?
R I work 28 years in the Service, and I worked in different police stations.. Doing different jobs. Different stations different jobs.
I Ok.. And you started as a police officer then?
R Yes I started as a police officer.
I Ok.. I see. And why did you join the Police Service?
R Oh.. It was just for my interest.. I was interested in the job because of the (…) of the people, and seeing why this misconduct.. The people.. are acting wrongly.. And my aim was.. The idea was not to put them in jail but try to change their lifestyles.. And mindsets..[respondent looks at watch]
I Ok.. I’ll keep it as short as possible.. What is your first language? In what language are you raised?
R Tswana is my first language.
I Ok.. And what other languages do you speak?
R Only English. English and Afrikaans. For the purpose of the job and communication wise.
I Ok. I see. And in your function, you use all of the three languages?
R Ja. All of the three languages. English, Afrikaans and Tswana.
I Ok. And what language do you most often speak with your colleagues?
R Tswana. Most of my colleagues are mostly the Tswana people.
I Ok. And do you still work in the streets or are you mainly situated in the office?
R No.. I also work in the streets. Like I’ve said now.. I had a few minutes.. I have to go back to the road block
(…).
I Ok, I see. And if you are in the street, in what language do you address people?
R That depends on the type of people. What kind of people it is. I find English people.. Or if it is a Zulu speaking person.. I don’t understand Zulu but then we speak English. Any other African language I use English mostly.
Even the foreigners, they always understand English.
I Exactly I see. So do I [smiles]. Ok.. Do you ever experience difficulties with the languages? Like for instance if somebody comes from Mozambique? And he doesn’t speak any other language then Portuguese?
R From Africa’s.. Most of the people are not learning English.. They are using Portuguese and French.. So most of the people.. It happens that we don’t understand each other.. And then we have to find somebody to interpret between us.. Mostly from the Africa’s they are. From the whites most of them can speak English. Here and there.. Some of them don’t want to speak English.. They want Afrikaans only.. I don’t know why..
I Really?
R Yes really.. They give us a problem because they don’t want.. To speak English. They only want to speak
Afrikaans.
I Ok.. But that is maybe mainly the people in the farms or something..
R Ja mostly from the farms or around town.. Like Potchefstroom.. Klerksdorp.. Ventersdorp..
I Ok.. I see.. And generally speaking, how do you feel about the eleven official languages? It’s a good thing?
R I think.. uhm.. I am not going to learn anymore.. I am 45 years old and.. But now I am starting to see how the communication is.. You know I could have learned to speak all of the eleven languages.. But you see.. Now it is too late for me.. I try.. But unfortunately I cannot cope.
I I see.. It is a lot he.. eleven languages..
R Ja.. Ja..
I Ok.. I see. And then something as a final thing.. The policy.. That says you have to speak as much as possible
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” in English and Afrikaans... And write the reports.. Do you ever experience difficulties with that?
R With speaking Afrikaans?
I Yeah, or writing it..
R I am not so good in writing.. I am can understand Afrikaans.. But in writing it gives me a lot of problems.. My problems are the spelling of the language.. The spelling is not the same as how you are talking.. So for me as a
Tswana person.. It is.. English is very easy to write it, because the pronunciation is almost the same as how you write it.. But in Afrikaans it is the ‘f’ and the ‘v’ that in sometimes they appear to be the same.. You think you are saying the same thing but you write them the same only sometimes.. Most of the time the tone of your writing (…). So I am not good in writing.. I try to speak but I know it is.. It is important because of my job.
And all the time.. Mostly the people that come here.. That are the Afrikaans speaking people.
I Ok.. But in the reports you must use English right?
R Yeah.. But I try to.. If I speak to you like now.. We are ok in English. But if you speak to me in Afrikaans I try to translate everything to English and then I learn to (…).
I Ok.. That’s it already.. Do you have any questions for me?
I FINALIZATION
Interview 12, 02-04-2012, 08:00 – 08:52
Closed room
Joanne, White female, 7 years within SAPS, Constable
I INTRODUCTION
I Ok. Can you firstly.. How long have you been in the Police Service?
R Ok I am in the police now for seven years. I joined in 2005 so it is about seven years.
I Ok.. And you are now..?
R I am a constable. The lowest rank in the Police actually.
I Ok..
R Before that, you do the two years basic training, you start then six months.. Actually they changed it.. But when I joined it was six months basic training, and after that is was six months on the station.. Then you do all the administration.. And the statement taking.. And opening up dockets and everything.. Then after that they
I put you in the field for a year.. After that year.. When you are finished.. You are appointed permanently. That is the probation year. So after the probation year they appoint you permanently.
Ok..
R And I am here for seven years now.. At the same station..
I That is quite a while already then..
R Ja it is a long time.. If I go through the years, it feels like [snaps fingers] that.. Time flies..
I Ok.. I see.. And why did you join the Police Service?
R That is actually an interesting story.. I wanted to join after I finished my graduation.. But they were on that time.. But they changed the.. How do they call it.. The apartheidjaren were over and then they started with a new staff and then it was equity.. The equity stuff.. And then when I applied, there was not a space for.. There was just a limited space for the white people.. So I fallen out. Then I started to working and.. Ach.. I got married and I got my two children.. And this thing of going to the Police was still in the back of my mind. So
I actually ended up at the nursery school.. I was working with the two to three years olds.. And that was actually nice.. But uhm.. This thing of the Police stayed with me all the time.. And then so I applied.. After my two kids, I gained too much weight.. Because you have to be a certain weight to join the police. I gained so much weight that it took me two years to lose the k’s. I had to lose 27 kilogram.. When I was 31.. I said to I was going to apply for the last time.. And so you have to do the psychometrics and fitness.. So I passed the psychometrics and I went for the fitness.. And then I made it by four seconds..
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
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Oh wouw.. That was very close!
Yes that was very close.. So I went there.. And that was very emotional.. My children were waiting for me..
Because there are so little white.. Afrikaans speaking people.. Like the saying goes; “Birds of the same feather flock together”, we speak Afrikaans.. So when it is break times.. You sit together. And the Tswana speaking people, and the Suthu’s, and the (…Pedi’s…).. They group together.. So there are also this different groups amongst them also.. So.. Ja..
Ja that sounds very familiar to me. As I am new here and start looking at certain things.. You see that..
It is not actually the color.. But it is more or less the culture.. Because they believe in other things than we believe.. And the other speaking people they are more.. They believe in other stuff. “We are the colored people and we speak the same language and we sort of believe in the same stuff..” If you go to a funeral for example of one of the Tswana speaking people, it is a very long.. And it is always over a weekend.. It takes long.. About three or four days to bury the people.. If we do it; we go to church, have a ceremony, you go to the grave, the person is being buried, and then afterwards you go to the church hall to have snacks.. Or whatever.. There, they slaughter a cow, and they make a big thing out of it.. They sort of make a feast out of it.. And is also different from us because we also stick to our closest family, you’ve got your mother, your father, your brothers your sisters.. You know. They for instance.. They uncles, and great uncles and great fathers.. They have this really big.. Huge family..Like.. We include only our mother and father, brother and sister, children.. They make all these people their close family.. That is why they have a lot of people at their funerals..
That’s what I thought.. Ok.. And you said about the equity.. Is that still? That if there is a promotion and for example a black and a white person are suitable for the function..
Yes. Actually.. I can’t complain. I’m still actually new.. You have to be seven years in the police to get your first promotion.. From constable you get sergeant. So I actually can’t complain.. But there are people.. Not only white people.. But there are some of the African people also. So it just seems like.. They leave them behind. I don’t know why.. I can’t say. We actually got two sergeants here on the station that I thought like..
Why are they staying sergeant? They are.. 45.. 47.. And I don’t know why they are still sergeants.. Other people, 28, 25, they go up to the higher ranks. If you read our newspapers, they talk about sergeants being promoted to colonels.. And that is not right, because after sergeant you must be a warrant officer, after that you must be lieutenant… They skip sort of five to six ranks..
I That’s a lot..
R So I can’t say.. I can’t say.. It depends on.. I am not allowed to say it.. On who you know.. It is who you know
I these days..
Ok.. And do the people in this office decide that who is being promoted or in the Pretoria head office?
R It is actually from our provincial office.. Did you see that other building at the Westpol Square? That is our provincial office for the North West. But it still goes up to national office, and they make the final decision..
But they work on the word of the provincial office. So if they say, ok, that one is fine for the job, then they will only appoint him.
I So it is more a formal thing..
R Yes it is a formality.
I And the people in the provincial office, did they all start as a police officer?
R You know what.. Previously, you had to go to college, to be appointed as a police officer. I can’t say that where it changed.. Where there were appointed people from outside with degrees..For example this other lady that was standing here earlier.. She is a lawyer. So, there was a post advertised as a warrant officer in the legal department. She applied and she got the position. What happened now.. When there is this post open in another component, for instance crime prevention where we work.. She can apply. She apply.. She gets the position.. But she didn’t go through the college.. Doesn’t have this discipline.. Well this discipline is not the problem.. But everything you learn in the college.. She don’t have.. So she don’t know how to do the crime prevention.. She knows all the legal aspects around this.. But she don’t know how they work. So it makes it more difficult.. But this is how I see it. But I am only one of the lower ranks, I don’t know how people on top
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” sees it.. But..Uhm.. It makes it difficult for the people who start at the bottom, in the college.. And they don’t get the promotion. And there are some captains.. 14, 15, 16 years who have been captain. And some people only two years, and they go up..
I Ok.. I think.. Like you said, you have to know the right people..
R Yeah, and it is not only affecting the white people.. Like I said, there is African people that is affected also.
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They just stay behind.
Yeah I see.. Well that is interesting to hear.. Thank you for being so open..
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R As long as you don’t publish..
I No, please don’t worry.. Again.. What you say to me is confidential and for study purposes only. So please don’t worry about that. Ok.. About your work in a normal day.. What do you do?
Ok I am working actually under the crime prevention unit, but I am working with the reservists.. I don’t know if you know reservists?
Reservists? No I don’t know?
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The reservist is the reserve force for the police. When you want to be a reservist, you must have the same qualifications as a permanent member. You apply, and when you are appointed, you go to training. But the training is very short.. Training is only two weeks for the reservists.. They are doing the same work as we do, they get the same blouses as we do.. So if you see a constable, you will not be sure if it is a reservist or a permanent member. The reservist is working voluntary, he don’t get any money, and he has to work sixteen hours in a month. So I am working with reservists, I am working with all that has to do with the reservists.
The uniforms they are using, the hours they are doing, the (….) we have to send to the provincial office.. And then, besides that, I am helping with, between and captain van de Walt, we are doing the administration duties for crime prevention.
Ok, I see. So you are mainly in the office then?
R Most of the time I am in the office ja.. Starting actually from this year.. I got a problem with, it is a personal problem, with my kids and everything. So starting from this year I am totally in the office. But previously, half of the time, I worked outside and half of the time in the office. And we don’t have any typists at the
I station.. So we don’t have anybody.. We have people that don’t know how to use the computer.. They don’t know how to use the computer, they don’t know how to use the program. So most of the time, between me and captain van de Walt, we also do the typing..
Ok.. But who doesn’t know how a computer works.. That is strange to me..
R Well it is not that they don’t know how to use a computer, it is that they don’t know how to use the program..
So.. They don’t know.. How to type a document. They can use the keyboard.. But they don’t know how to put the document together.
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Ok.. But don’t you get that in training then?
No.. What you get in training, and that is field training, that means when you are at the station.. Then they tell you about all the data systems.. That means that you can register documents and.. But it’s a different program.. But to put a document together.. That is different than typing a letter.. But when you are here they send you for courses.. That is another thing, while I am speaking about that.. I think it differs also from station to station. Struggle to go on a course.. You struggle to get you name on the course.. Because, its again.. Who you know. The people that is working in the HR.. How can I say.. They only send “selected members” on a course. You just struggle to go on a course. I went on a course in 2008 the last time?
I Ok.. And HR arranges that then? Or is that also arranged by the provincial office?
R Our HR office is supposed to arrange that. They liaise with the training office, and they select nominated members for these courses, and only when we hear about it is only when the name list is already put together..
These are the name list, and these people must be ready for this and this and this time..
I Ok.. I see.. So now you mostly work in the office.. What languages do you most often speak with your colleagues?
R English. Most of the time it is English. I got a few colored reservists.. I’ve got a lot.. I’ve got around 116 reservist under me. Of which 30 is white.. And twelve is colored.. And the rest is Tswana and Sutus. So.. I can
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” understand a little bit of Tswana when they speak.. But I can’t speak it. So most of the time I am using
English. So basically English is the language for the police. Because if I speak Afrikaans, they won’t understand me.. If they speak Tswana, I don’t understand them.. And then the communication problem is created..
Ok.. But I do see pretty often that the people in the office are speaking Tswana.. Or Afrikaans.. I
R When they speak to each other.. When.. Ok. Me and the captain, we got Constable (…), and she is an African lady. She can speak Afrikaans, so sometimes we speak Afrikaans to her.. And sometimes English. It just depends. But me and the captain we always speak Afrikaans. We are lucky she understands Afrikaans. So in some offices the people don’t understand Afrikaans and they don’t want to speak the Afrikaans.. It just depends on who the person is. So when they speak Tswana, I think it is more where there are African people in one office.. Or at least more than one..
I see.. And maybe it is because it is easier to express yourself in your own language.. I
R Exactly..
I Ok.. And that is why you switch to..
R Ja, you see, you are used to it.. I feel more comfortable to speak in Afrikaans.
I Ok, I can understand. So you speak English and Afrikaans.. Do you also speak other languages?
R No, only Afrikaans and English. I wish I could speak one of the other languages.. But I don’t know. They say that Afrikaans is easier to learn.. for them.. Than for us than to learn one of their languages.. I don’t know.. I grew up with Afrikaans.. So.. For me it is normal to speak Afrikaans.
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I Ok. And don’t they give any courses here or something? For languages?
R Not in the police.. If you want to do it, you have to go to the university..
I Ok, so you have to do it in your own time..
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R Ja in your own time..
I Ok.. I see.. So that is not very attractive then.. Ok. And when you were working in the streets, outside.. Ok it has been a while..
R I still do it.. Sometimes during nights.. Then the crime is very high, and they need people to support the manpower, so then I still work in the streets ja..
Ok.. And what languages.. How do you address people?
Uhm.. Most of the time I speak Afrikaans with the people.. And if it is African people, you will speak
English. If they turn to Afrikaans.. The older people.. They like more to speak Afrikaans than the young ones..
They want to speak the English. Sometimes you will start speaking to a person in English and then he will address you in Afrikaans.. And then you know ok this person is speaking Afrikaans instead of English. And you get people like that. But when someone turns to English you keep on speaking English.
Ok. And over the radio.. Because in the car you have a radio I guess..
Most of the time you speak English. The people in our radio control office, most of them can’t understand
Afrikaans. So.. Actually it is policy, you have to speak English or Afrikaans.. But the reason we changed to
English is because most of the members don’t understand Afrikaans, because the younger people grow up most of the time learning English. And.. I don’t know if it is the apartheidsjaren that make this.. That they don’t want to speak Afrikaans.. I don’t have a problem to speak English, but sometimes I am struggling to get the correct words out.. But uhm.. I don’t have a problem speaking English.
Ok.. So all in all you manage with speaking English here..
Ja. Ok.. Ja.. Most of our Afrikaans people.. Also… Like the older people, they don’t want to speak the
English, because they just don’t want it.. So then they speak Afrikaans.. But it is a few of them.. Like a few of the reservists.. Some of them.. It is a small group.. Of reservists that is working in the rural area. So that means they are only working on the small holdings and the farms.. So these are the older guys.. Like previously we had a commander.. And it was all the old army guys.. Now some of them are already in their fifties, sixties.. And they don’t want to speak the English.. They grew up with only Afrikaans, so they want to speak their language, and they stand on that they can speak the Afrikaans. So some of the African members, they understand it.. But some of them they don’t like it.. You see.. It is always creating this.. Rubbing [rubs
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And did something like.. Ever happened? That someone got a fight over it or..
Over the language..? No.. It is only sometimes when they speak the African language.. over the radio.. That one of the senior members will say, that the official language is English or Afrikaans..
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Ok.. So it does happen that somebody on the radio..
Yes, there is sometimes someone of the senior officers that.. Like our cluster commander.. He will sometimes say like.. You know the official language is English or Afrikaans.. The problem with the languages is.. So for instance there is a vehicle outside in danger.. And they need help.. And they speak in Tswana.. Ok and we are all Afrikaans, so we all speak English.. But if they would speak in English, than we would also understand and we can assist them with the problem.. NOW, only the Tswana speaking people understand them and only they will go there.. We will carry on with whatever we are busy with.. And then maybe those people will get killed or something.. And they don’t see it like that.. They feel offended when you say they have to speak in
English or Afrikaans on the radio.. I don’t have a problem if they change it to only English it is fine.. Because all of us in South Africa understand English. I mean you grow up with it since grade three.. You LEARN to understand it.. The television is in English, the computer is in English.. Everything is English.. So if they change it to only English, it is fine.. I think that it will also.. Distinction between the (…) about the languages will also stop.. We Afrikaans people must express in English and they Tswana people must express in
English.. So actually then we meet each other half way..
Ok.. And that is also what is happening mostly in the streets then right? I
R Ja.. Most of the time.. Ja..
I Ok.. And did it like.. ever happen that you have to deal with somebody that doesn’t speak English or
Afrikaans?
R JA! On the farms, some of the people can’t speak Afrikaans.. They can’t even speak English.. Maybe a very little little bit Afrikaans.. That is why they say that when you are outside you have to be with two languages..
So with an African member and an Afrikaans speaking member. So when you struggle with one of the people who don’t understand Tswana, then you will translate..
Ok.. And is that still today that you always go with.. uhm..
Most of the time when there are Afrikaans speaking members that are working outside than there is an
African member with them. But the problem we’ve got now is that the Afrikaans people are with so little now because of that affirmative action.. The affirmative action is still ongoing. There are still.. It seems to me that they are still pushing away the white people and they only want to get in the black people.. And now.. There is too many African people that have to serve the Afrikaans community. So like for instance here in our charge office.. The complainants that come here is 70% Afrikaans.. And then we’ve got a problem.. That if people want to make a statement they want to make it in their own language because that how you express the best.. Now it is that the black officers can’t write Afrikaans and they can’t speak Afrikaans.. They can’t understand Afrikaans.. Well, they understand Afrikaans, but they write the statement in English.. Then, the community member is furious because he wants the statement in Afrikaans.. In some of the police offices, they give them the paper, and YOU write it in Afrikaans.. So there is this..
Struggle..
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Ja.. It makes it difficult.. To serve the community.. And I know.. The top management don’t want the (…) to know all these things.. But actually this is what is happening in our country.. And then you have to wait in long ques to be served and because of the language difference.. It takes you longer.. You have to listen in
Afrikaans, then you have to translate it and write it in English. And when the community member is not satisfied with the statement you have to redo the statement.. So it takes MORE TIME. When it took you previously twenty minutes to write a statement, because that person is Afrikaans and I am Afrikaans, I can write it quickly in Afrikaans.. Now it takes you about forty minutes to an hour to write a statement.. It takes you an hour to open a case, and then now, it takes them about two hours.. So ja the way I see it.. It makes it difficult..
Ok.. And you said that the top management doesn’t really want to know about this..
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R The people at the head office.. You know what.. Everything is going around statistics these days.. So the way
I see it.. It changed. Like.. This is top management [takes a square object from the desk], and this is the people in the offices doing the administration [takes a stick from the desk] But the people here [top management] is less than the people doing the administration.. Now.. Previously it was like this.. People working on the ground was more than the people in the offices doing administration.. Now it is standing upside down.. So what is going to happen.. This is going to break.. And then everything is going to fall.. That is the way I see it if you understand what I am saying..So the way I see it.. Is that we want to show to the world that everything is fine.. So it takes more people to het that administration and the statistics ready to show the world that what is happening on the ground.. Crime is taking the police over.. Our crime is so high, we can’t be everywhere..
And in our department, some people are working during the day, and also during the night.. Three, four times a week.. So they are working twelve hours during the day, and they are also working six hours in the night..
I Because it is just so busy..
R It is so busy that only a few people have to carry the weight of the crime.. The people in the office don’t feel it.. Ok I am getting of the point now..
I But it is very interesting to hear because most of the people I spoke are like, yeah it’s all good.. So I am very glad to talk to someone that is more critical..
R Some people will tell you what they think you want to hear.. That is how most of the people work.. But..
Why? Why?
I Exactly, that is not why I am here.. Uhm.. Ok.. I think that we pretty much had it now.. Ok as a final question.. Generally speaking, how do you feel about the eleven official languages? Because.. Like you said it
R is a good thing that everybody can express himself in his own language, but on the other hand, it comes with its difficulties..
I think if we stay with that.. Eleven official languages.. Like for instance now the Afrikaans people.. They have their rights.. They want their things in Afrikaans, yes, there are things in Afrikaans. So I understand..
That the Tswana people, the Sutu people.. They want their forms.. And their whatever in their official language.. I understand it.. But the feeling that it creates is difficulty themselves.. When they go to the one
I language that everybody understands.. And work with the English. I think it is going to cost us a lot of money.. If you go with the eleven official languages.. So all of the forms must be in eleven of everything.. If you write exams.. Everything must be in eleven languages.. So it is going to cost us a lot of money.. My opinion.. Make everything English.
Yeah, ok so that next to the African, the Afrikaans people also have to adjust..
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Everybody accommodating in that language.. And almost everybody speaks the language already.. So you don’t have to get somebody to translate anymore.. Because in the court, you speak your own language.. It depends on the judge, if he speaks English or Afrikaans or Tswana.. And we got the translators.. But that will also save time.. Because now if you speak.. The translator must translate it to the judge.. Then he speaks again, and that must be translated as well.. So everything will save us time, it will save us energy, it will save us money.. Everything.. But now.. Most of the people will have to say that you will stand on your rights. And it is my right to speak my language..
Ja.. And do you think it still has to do with the apartheid? That it really is that now they have their right to speak their own language, so that is what I am doing..
You know what.. After the apartheid, this human rights was introduced.. The whole human rights thing started.. I think that is where the problem starts. Because now the criminals also have more rights then you.
I Really?
R JA! For us it feels like that.. Because now you arrest someone.. If you make a small mistake.. Then the court
I throws the case out.. The criminal is free..
Really.. So they committed a crime..
R In South Africa, you are guilty until proven not.. But if they feel that there are some technical point that are not right.. They throw the case out of the court.
I Really.. And does it happen often?
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R Very often.. You may arrest someone for housebreaking.. Then they will get bail.. And our bail is not very high.. It is very very very low.. So they get bail.. Next week, you see them on the street again.. Now, he is on bail.. But he does not stick to the rules and regulations of the court or whatever.. So he is doing the housebreakings again.. You arrest him again to put him away.. And then you release him again on bail..
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Because we have this problem.. Our correctional services are full.. So, they have to do something else..
Ok so they don’t want to send them to the correction because they are already full.. Ok.. So they send them back in the streets again..
R Hmhm.. That is why crime is more.. Criminals are having more rights than you have.. I mean you can kill
I someone.. And you can also die.. It just don’t feel right for me.. If you kill a person.. I mean you can also get injury.. And now, what the criminals get when they commit a crime.. A nice bed, food, they get education.. I can kill someone to get all that.. Now that don’t sound right nah? But of you see what I mean.. I can kill someone.. Now they put me in jail.. I get all these things.. They got so many rights now..
Yeah you also see that in the Netherlands.. The cells are very luxury.. I mean.. When it is cold in the winters..
You have the bums that commit a crime.. Not for the crime, but just so they get arrested but just to go to jail so they have a nice roof over their head.. And they get food and stuff.. Yeah in the Netherlands it is also a big problem.. And of course they have their rights.. But it is to what extent..
R That is the thing nah.. I would love to have an extra education.. Fortunately I have no one that was killed or anything.. But you see it every time.. Every every time.. When you open the paper you see it everywhere..
Murder murder murder.. When is it going to stop? You feel like there is a lot of people rushing out of the country.. Immigrating to New Zealand, Australia, England.. I don’t know where else.. WHY? If it is like
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America.. How is the crime in America? We don’t know about it because they keep it under the carpet.. South
Africa, everybody knows about the crime.. Because it is always there, in your face.. So ja.. I don’t know..
But that didn’t stop you from becoming a police officer..
R No.. Actually when I wanted to join the police.. It was a passion.. But the thing is.. The things you experience inside..[looks at watch].. Sorry I have to keep an eye on the time, I have to bring my son at school at nine..
But I see I have still time it is a quarter to nine.. Uhm.. The things you experience in the police.. You see things, the community don’t know about.. They don’t experience.. The police officers have stress and police officers kill themselves.. Because you see stuff.. You see people die.. You see the worst of the worst.. So I understand.. I am only seven years in the police.. And you are getting something if you are getting negative..
But we must see the bigger picture.. You are not always in the position to see the bigger picture.. And the only person who can give you that bigger picture is God.. It is God.. If you don’t hold on to God, than you will kill yourself.. You will kill other people.. All these things.. And I don’t know if you have seen the bible.. If you see the bible, and what is happening today in the world.. And you see the bible.. It is what is happening..
Everything that is in the bible is what is happening now.. It is just a matter of time.. And at this stage I think that that is where we have to hold on.. Actually I am not worried about promotion.. I don’t worry about a lot of stuff.. Ja, but you get your negative thoughts.. There is members here that is say seventeen years, twenty years who are a captain, that stay in one rank.. While other people.. It seems that these people start later, and catch you in.. And that don’t feel nice.. So I feel for the people..
I And you can’t ignore that..
R You see that is why I can’t complain, I am only here for seven years now.. I haven’t stayed too many years in my rank.. I am actually qualifying to go to the next rank in July.. But it just depends on.. Our provincial head office when they are going to let us be promoted.. This year.. Or 2013.. So.. I can’t speak actually.. You must get one of the older.. Like captain (…) maybe.. So he can give you his point of view.. Everybody has got a different point of view..Everybody got a different way of seeing stuff.. And you know what.. Captain (…) father or mother of both come from the Netherlands..
I Oh really?
R Ja his name is (……..)..
I Yeah that sounds very Dutch.. It is a very common name in the Netherlands..
R I can’t remember if it is his father or mother.. Or his grandparents.. I can’t say.. But I think it is good if you
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I speak to him..
Ok let me write that down.. Is he also in the crime prevention?
R Yes he is the manager of our sector one.. Our area is divided into sectors, one two and three.. And he is the manager for sector one.
I Ok..
R Now for how long have you been in South Africa?
I For one month now.. And I am staying until the end of May..
R Ok.. And how do you like it so far?
I I love it, the people are very friendly and helpful and I actually feel very safe here.. But in the beginning I really had to get used to locking the gate all the time and all the big walls around the houses..
R Ja the community has to lock itself from the criminals ja..
I Ja like we discussed.. When I am at home all day I feel a bit like I am in a cage.. I can’t go anywhere alone and I can’t take my laptop anywhere..
R Oh ja.. Your laptop you must keep under your pillow.. Laptops is one of our high priority crimes.. Theft of laptops.. A lot..A lot.. Everyday there is between two and six laptops being stolen.. And you don’t always want to be sitting inside.. If you are used to be an outside person you don’t want to come inside.. You are getting stressed.. Or I don’t know what you can call it.. But ja in South Africa you have to lock everything..
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You even have to lock your tables drawers, I have to lock my office when I go outside.. Things are getting lost at the station.. But I can’t say if it is colleagues or community..
Because.. Everybody is allowed to walk in here right?
R Ja! There is a lot of people walking in here. In this office.. Very often people come in to ask where can I make a statement and this and that.. Where is the crime office, I want to see this one and this one..
I Ja.. Also because I can just walk around here freely..
R Ja can you believe it! My friend says you know what you are sitting in a dangerous spot here.. He said if anyone can come in here.. There is no gate where you push the button.. Anyone can come in here and do anything they like.. I sit actually next to the CAC where they open the cases.. Those people sitting at the
CAC, did you see them wear bullet proofs?
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I No..
R Ok so there was an instruction some time ago that they had to wear bullet proofs when they are working in the
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Is it that dangerous?
R Ja.. We are actually not in a red zone. They divided us in zones. Gauteng, Johannesburg, Pretoria.. Those places are red zones. We are not a red zone so we don’t always have to wear a bullet proof. But you have to have it with you in case there is a robbery or.. Whatever.. You have to be able to put it on.. So they told the people in the CAC that they need to wear bullet proofs.. My fire arm is in the safe.. I don’t have it all the time with me.. Because I think it is not necessary to have your firearm when you are working all the time in the office.. So I got a little safe there, and put it in there.. And I have my bullet proof in the office but I don’t wear it.. But.. You see.. It is actually a wrong way of doing.. In some stations they have gates where you have to push the button and tell who you want to see.. In some stations they do that! I don’t know why in Potch they don’t..
FINALIZATION
Interview 13, 02-04-2012, 09:00 – 09:23
Mark, White male, 30 years within SAPS, Brigadier & Albert, White male, 4 years within SAPS, community worker
Interview in office of Brigadier
R1= respondent 1; Brigadier R2= respondent 2; Community worker
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“Birds of the same feather flock together”
I
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INTRODUCTION
Ok so with your colleagues?
R2 All policemen and officers that I deal with, and all the other ranks as well.. It is all English, they are all conversant in English.
I Ok.. And how long have you been in the police?
R1 Thirty years..
I Ok.. That is very long.. And you?
R2 I have been involved for four years now..
I Ok.. I see.. And why did you join the police?
R1 Because you want to be a police officer, no other reason.. It is a calling, it is not a job.
R2
I
Ok I am not in the police, I am a retired farmer. But I am a member of our policing forum which is part of our communities interaction and is the link between the police and the community.
Ok..
R2 We work with the police very closely but we also take communities viewpoints on attitudes, conditions, and what is happening to the police for their action. We make recommendations to the police.
I Ok.. I see.. And how do you know each other?
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R2
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R1
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R1 Well obviously I am a commander, and he is involved in the community police forum, so the two of us work very close. The needs of the community comes through the community police forum, and our response is communicated through that as well. It is an elected forum that represents the community per policing (…).
Ok.. I see.. In here in the office I hear a lot of languages.. Tswana, Afrikaans, English.. But I heard that the policy says ‘only English’..
R1 No there is nothing that says only English.. It depends on your client.. If I receive a letter in Afrikaans from the community, I will respond in Afrikaans. So in this province, the North West Province, the main languages are Tswana, Afrikaans and English. Most of us can talk to each other in either one or two, or all three languages.
Ok.. And do you also go outside or in the streets to..
English and Afrikaans. Most of my interaction with the white community is in Afrikaans. That is the common language.
Ok, I see. And like you said you have the Chinese community..
Yes that is difficult.. Some of them can also speak English.. If there is a problem we can always get a translator in.
I And is the translator from the Police Service or..
R1 Not necessarily. From the justice department they contract certain translators, especially when it goes to court.
I
They have certain translators and interpreters for the department of justice.
Ok. And how do you feel about the language barrier.. Do you think it affects your work?
R1 Ja, for sure.
R2 Where we interact with foreigners like that, you do not only have a language barrier but we have a cultural perception barrier. On the standards we want to oppose upon society, and the norms that they regard as norms from another society. That is sometimes very different.
I Ok, I see. And how do you deal with that, because you have to maintain your culture.. So that person from the other culture..
R2 I feel very much like the Australian prime minister.. You’ve come to MY country, you should follow my norms, and my conditions and my attitudes.. I should not have to concede that you can maintain yours in my culture in my country. And this is I think one of the main reasons why we have people coming from other parts of the world. We also work with the drug forum. And one of the problems we have with the Somalis is that a particular mild hallucinatory.. That is used from Somalia to South Arabia, and that it is perfectly the norm.. That 99% of the people may use it. But here, it is a forbidden drug. So they regard it roughly unfair if we do take action against them, they may regard it as a cultural norm.
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R1 Like in Amsterdam, Daha is legal. But it is not legal here. So even the Chinese, it is acceptable for them to stay in the shops and make it a residential place. They put the bed in there.. For us it is the law. You cannot stay in the place where you do business. So we act against it. We respect their cultural believes, but when it comes to the law, that is the upper hand. But we have as I say, we respect their culture. But to a certain extent.
I
R1
Like (…) said with the drug.. They do use it while it is forbidden in South Africa..
Ok.. So the Chinese is an obvious very different culture.. But when you look at all the cultures IN South
Africa.. They also differ pretty much right?
Ja.. Ja.. Even within South Africa.. The different races and languages.. And tribes.. They have their own cultural things.. But they all fit in the law.. There is no culture that says that you can break the law.. Nowhere in the world.. So, they say it is acceptable in Somalia, I mean it seems like piracy is accepted in Somalia today while it is nowhere accepted in the world.. So, the law is the upper hand, and that’s it. But no culture, will provide for committing crime. So that is not an excuse..
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R1
Ok.. I see. That is clear. Ok, generally, I got the feeling from the interviews I did the last week, that the police officers here are doing ok with the languages.. How do you look at it, from the top?
You see we don’t have a problem. Most of us can speak three of two languages. With our colleagues and with the community, we can communicate with our patrolling vehicles outside. We make sure that there is two members on a vehicle, they can speak six languages between them perhaps.. You won’t put two people in a vehicle that only speak English. You also mix that so we can serve the community. But it gets difficult with the foreign countries.. Especially the Chinese, the Somalians, the Nigerians.. But most of them can speak
English. But the Chinese is a bit anti-English.. As in the Netherlands some of the elderly don’t want to speak
I
R2
English, but all of the young people do it because they want to use the Facebook and the internet [smiles].. But it is not.. We don’t have a real problem with it.. But sometimes in court it becomes a problem. Because of the different dialects.. In China, you get ten different dialects.. To get the right translator, that is becoming a problem.
Yeah.. Yeah.. I see.. And how do you feel about it?
Well, I don’t have any problems myself.. I don’t have any communication problems. What I do see is that, in all communications, what you see.. What you say and what you hear can sometimes be two differences.
Because in my culture something means.. In the African culture you must be sensible to an insult. For example “oh you silly bugger” , not meaning anything.. But that can be taken as a strong offence because they have a different perception of the meaning of words, and the position of the ego in the communication ring if you like that.. That can sometimes cause a problem. AND we still have legacies of the past.. In the way people interact with each other.. That is also.. That can also be a communication problem. If it is seen that perhaps a white person is talking to a person of color and the person of color perceives it as you are talking down to them.. That might not be the case but that is what the perception is, and they will have an immediate reaction against that. So you have to be a certain amount guarded in how you communicate with people. It’s a reality we live with..
R1 One must just be cautious.. Cultures differ.. Languages differ.. I mean in the Netherlands.. A stupid example..
‘Meiden’ are young girls. Here, ‘maid’, they perceive it to refer to a black woman working in your house. You see? There is a difference. Just a simple example, for us, ‘jonge meiden’ is fine, but if you refer to a ‘maid’, it is regarded as an insult.. Ja you have to be cautious about this fact, what is normal in one language is different in another. That is just an example I know that is near to the Afrikaans..
Ok.. And is that then also why most of the people talk English? I
R2 Because of the history.. The Afrikaans was seen as an ‘oppressors language’. So there is a strong cultural reaction against it. In the North of the country. When you go down to the Southern area, the lingua franca of the Cape is Afrikaans.. So that is the norm.. And there is a lot of black people that see it as the language of the past, they don’t want to acknowledge it, even if they do speak it they will not acknowledge that they can.. Like
I said that is a lot of legacies that is involved in here..
R1 It is true.. In schools, you must have English as a subject. And your mother tongue. So it is the most common language that all of us had as a subject at school. So you have to pass grade twelve English. So then plus your
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” mother tongue, your first and second language. So that is the most common language perhaps. But here in my office we will speak Afrikaans, English, Tswana with the black ladies.. I am lucky I can speak the language..
So we speak any of the three languages, we understand each other.
I Ok..
R1 Can I offer you a cup of coffee or tea or anything?
I A glass of water would be nice, thank you..
R1 Ok that can be arranged, jij (…)?
R2 Nee danki [Afrikaans]
I Ok.. Maybe this question is more suitable for the police officers.. But what do you do in a normal day and
R1 how does language affect this?
Ja it depends on what you do.. You got your patrol officers, you’ve got your detectives, you’ve got your intelligence people.. Etcetera. So I’ve never come to, that we really cannot overcome it.. Even we have people trained in sign language. I’ve got three in the station that translate for deaf people, so we also got people trained in sign language.. But again we make a plan, we get somebody to accommodate communication.
Because interaction with real foreigners that really don’t speak any language is really just a few.. Only 1% of everything.. And usually they have somebody, that when they complain to the police that they will take
R2 somebody that can speak to the police in English. Let’s say for the policing community forum.. We have a system of policing, we call it a ‘gemeenschaps polisie’, and from within the community representatives are elected by the community to interact with the police, because I cannot interact with a hundred thousand people in my city.. So I interact with a certain ‘verkozen commitee’, wat et makkelijker maak.
We go from the sector of the (…..) which I am the secretary of, we go to sector (…) which are for management purposes divided in certain areas, geographically, each of those have a subforum, which brings them closer and closer to the community. So their leaders come to our meeting with the police hierarchy. At their level they operate with the police, and to the next level.. So you have a more..
R1 You see, because..
R2 Representative picture of the community. And we can pass things more to the community easily. I work more close with the media, what should be published about the police and what not..
R1 You see why we are doing sectors, it is because smaller areas.. Potchefstroom police station area is about 1200 square kilometer.. So it is from rural.. To urban.. To business.. So all the people’s needs are not the same. So that is why we break it up in smaller sectors, as we call it. The needs of the farmers are totally different from the needs of the urban people. Again within the urban area you have business people here and they totally
I differ again from you residential areas.. So to really address the needs of the specific community.. Therefore we work in sectors.
Ok, I see. And the Kacheng area?
R1 That falls also under me.. As a cluster commander I have five police stations under my guard. So it is
Potchefstroom, Kacheng, Ventersdorp, and Klerksdorp. So in the weekend I drive 360 kilometers, it is nearly the whole Netherlands I could drive through [laughs], and there they have the similar structures. Different needs, different crime.
R2
I
R1
I Yeah, I see.
R1 [little conversation about the commanders’ son studying in the Netherlands]
I Ok.. For my language question we pretty much had it.. When the people go in the streets and the difficulties you have to deal with..
As the brigadier said, the patrol vehicles.. There can be mixed sexes and also different language groups. So they can handle anything, from an Afrikaan, white complain to a black female having an complain..
Ok.. So it is that you are aware that the languages can cause difficulties..
I
Yes we are aware and we are quite cautious about it, cultural differences, language barriers.. Yes. And, even with the 2010 world cup soccer, we in Potchefstroom hosted the Spanish team. A lot of our commanders were send on a Spanish course.
Really?
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R1 Yes from the university there came a Spanish professor that presented classes to us. The basic things like, addressing someone, what time it is.. Etcetera.
I Ok.. So there also were a lot of fans here then?
R1 Ja a lot of fans ja! Because it was one of the favorite teams..
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R1
Obviously next to the Netherlands [smiles]
[smiles] Yes.. But so even in that sense we are very cautious. You see communication is important, you cannot understand each other if you don’t speak a common language.. But you know at the end of the day..
We find ways and means to address each other.. We have a system called ISA. It is a translating telephone..
Intermediating system. What happens if there is no (…) language where you have a problem with, you can phone this specific number. Put the request in, and then they’ll get somebody to put in the telephonic translation for you. But these days with the internet and the translation services being available, it also helps a lot. If the need arises I can translate from Bulgarian to English.. It is a bit crooked, but you can understand it.
I Ok.. And do you also use these resources?
R2 It doesn’t apply at the level where I work at.. I don’t have a problem.
I
R1 But I can say to a certain extent it does not hamper our police work, the language problems. We find somebody.
I Ok. I think that that is a good way to end this interview..
FINALIZATION
Interview 14, 03-04-2012, 08:00 – 08:21
Hans, White male, 32 years within SAPS, Lieutenant
Interview in office of respondent (Smoked during the interview)
I INTRODUCTION
I Ok, firstly. Can you tell me something about your work here?
R Crime prevention.. I am the sector commander. The area is divided in three sectors. Sector one is mine. Sector one.. I don’t know if you know Potch at all.. But it is the N12, everything on the upper side. That is my sector.
And sector two is the site and the small holdings and sector three is the farms. So but uhm… I would say three quarters of the crime is in sector one. Ja, we got problems in the university area, the ‘Bult’ area, and the industrial area.. Ja..
I And what sort of crimes do you have to deal with?
R Uhm mostly house breakings.. Theft out of vehicles.. Theft of vehicles.. Assaults.. Rape.. And from time to time house robberies, persons robberies.. Ja.. And also drugs.. Ja.. Especially in the university area.. With the students.. Ja..
I Ok.. And you also work the seven to seven shifts then?
R Ja.. Mostly ja.. [smiles] But we are crime prevention so we can’t say that we work from seven to four.. So for instance tonight I will work again from eight o’clock until four o’clock tomorrow morning..
I Really???
R Ja because the crime is a real problem at the moment.. Ja..
I But that is very long days.. How do you deal with that?
R I don’t know.. I am already wondering myself.. Because tomorrow at seven o’clock I have to be back..
Unfortunately it is like that.. But you cope with it.. Ja..
I Ok.. That is all you can do right.. Ok.. And why did you join the Police Service?
R Actually.. It is a long story.. And I don’t have much time.. But uhm.. My three brother, older than me, were also in the Police. And they worked here for three years.. For years.. Five years.. And actually I was supposed to go to the army.. But at that time my oldest brother.. He suggested that I would go to the police as well.. I only wanted to stay for two years because I wanted to become an architect..
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I An architect?! That is quite different.. [smiles]
R Ja ja ja.. But when I was in the police it really was fun.. So then I stayed here..
I Ok.. And for how long have you been in the police now?
R Uhm.. From 1980.. So that is 32 years now..
I Wouw.. That is a lot.. And you started as a police officer then?
R Ja as a constable.. Ja..
I Ok.. As a constable.. Ok. And then now you are the sector manager..
R Ja the sector commander.. Ja..
I Ok.. So did you make a lot of promotion then?
R I have been promoted the last time in 1995..
I 1995.. That is quite a while..
R From captain than.. Ja.. Things happened.. Things changed.. So.. Ja..
I Ja, I heard it more often that is has been very long since they have been promoted.. And other ones just skip like one or two ranks..
R Ja.. Ja.. My wife is also in the Police Force.. Service.. Ja.. But she is admin. She is captain.. She started at finance, and she is at provincial level now.. Ja..
I Ok.. And so the area that you work is mainly sector one.. Ok.. Then about the languages.. What is your first language?
R Afrikaans.
I Afrikaans.. Ok.. And do you speak any other languages beside that?
R Nederlands not anymore [smiles] been too long.. It just happened like that.. I was the youngest one in my family, and when I left the house, I never spoke Nederlands again.. Now I speak only Afrikaans, and English is my second language..
I Ok.. And what languages do you speak in your function.. At work..
R Mostly English.. Ja.. With my colleagues it is usually always English.
I Ok.. I see..
R At the meetings.. It is 50 – 50 %.. English Afrikaans..
I Ok.. Because does it differ whether you speak to a white person or a black person?
R Yes you have to ja.. If you are in a meeting, and there is one guy that can’t speak Afrikaans, you must speak
English..
I So the official language so to say here is..
R Ja.. The official language.. They say it is Afrikaans and English in the police. When you come here for instance, you have to speak Afrikaans or English.. So that everyone can understand. And from time to time they speak
Tswana or Xhosa on the radio..
I On the radio?! But that is not safe..
R No it is not safe.. Not at all.. It is a problem.. Because you must always know what is going on.. But I can understand also for them, if something happens.. And you have to respond quickly.. It is easier in your own language..
I Ok.. And are there most often Tswana speaking people behind the radio? Or..
R Ja that is a bit of a problem in the radio control room.. Ja because it is young members.. Ja.. If you apply in the police.. Then you must.. How do you say.. Ja Afrikaans and English.. Ja.. But as soon as they are members..
And they have a position in the police.. Then they have a problem with Afrikaans.. The community is also complaining about that.
I Ja..
R Because then they just don’t understand it anymore.. And they know it.. And then most of the complainants speak Afrikaans.. But ja..
I Because I heard that most of the people in here speak Afrikaans..? So if they..
R Ja you know Potchefstroom is not the town to.. I think that they still work quite nice together.. The community
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” and the police.. Like a mainly white dorp like Ventersdorp there they have more problems.. But in Potch people are more.. How do I say it.. Dat komt beter klaar..
I Oh ok.. I guess I know what you mean..
R You know what I mean..It is politically better here..
I Ok..
R Ja over there it is ver rechts.. Ja.. And Potch is matig.. Gematigd..
I Ok.. I see.. And.. For what occasion do you most often speak with your colleagues? Like in a coffee break or in meetings..
R You know.. I am not the kind of person that drinks coffee even.. Or mix with other people for a coffee break or something.. If I am with colleagues, we will discuss mostly work. Work related problems and that kind of stuff.. Ja..
I Ok.. And did it ever happen.. That somebody.. In the past or in the streets or something.. Spoke a language you didn’t speak?
R Ja with the Nigerians.. Ja.. We have a big problem with Nigerians..They don’t speak English, so I couldn’t communicate with them.. And also when Spain was here.. But I didn’t have a lot to do with them..
I Ok.. I see.. Because now for your function your are now mainly situated in your office? Or..
R No I still work 90% outside.. Ja we just have to be outside..
I Ok then.. So if you see somebody in the street, in what language do you address a person?
R It depends.. If I speak Afrikaans and that person will start speaking English, I will go to English as well.. You have to serve the community so you have to address them in their language.. And if they can’t understand
English of Afrikaans, they will make use of that when they are in court.. Ja..
I Because when you are going outside are you going then with somebody who speaks Tswana?
R Uhm.. Luckily I have an assistant that is a Zulu.. But he also speaks Afrikaans. And he can speak English also good.. But with me he prefers to speak Afrikaans.. So when he is speaking to me I can speak my language and in the street he also speaks Afrikaans.. So ja.. That is also more accepted by the community.. You know we are not dealing so much with colored people.. Not in our sector.. At the meetings we speak mostly Afrikaans.. Ja..
I Ok.. And do you see a difference between your colleagues and what is going on outside? That there are for example people that don’t want to speak Afrikaans? Or..
R They don’t want to speak Afrikaans? Ja.. Ja..
I And are that mainly the younger people or the older people?
R Ja more the younger people.. Ja.. Especially from the black community.. They have got a problem with
Afrikaans.. Although they can speak it.. For instance if you get in a situation where you.. Like a march.. They see the police will interfere.. And then they will confront you.. That they will never ever speak Afrikaans.. Even if they can.. They will do it in English..
I Hmhm.. Ja.. How do you feel about it?
R Ja you can.. You know from ’95 it changed.. And before that we speak Afrikaans.. Even the black people they spoke Afrikaans too.. They had to.. So, my English is not that good.. But.. Ja..
I Well I think you are doing fine [smiles]
R [smiles] Thank you.. But uhm.. Sometimes you.. I speak badder Afrikaans then I did in ’95..
I Ok.. Can you tell me what do you have to do when you arrest somebody..?
R Well.. Uhm.. You see for crime prevention.. We have to be on the ground.. We have to have information.. And sometimes you are lucky.. Mostly you are lucky.. But when you are trying to arrest somebody for housebreak in the night.. It is almost impossible.. They will see your wagen.. So in the night we try to be in certain places..
But if we do make an arrest.. Do you mean how it affects an arrest?
I Ja.. How the language affects it..
R It is the same.. It is the same..
I Ok.. And then you bring a person here.. To the cells.. And then what happens..
R Concerning the language?
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I Ja but also to the person.. Is he going to the cells here then?
R Ja ok our procedure is that the arrested is being brought into the police station.. And then you have to take its statement.. The fingerprints.. And tell him what his rights is.. Charge him.. And bring him in the cells then, and bring him to court tomorrow. But then we are focusing on many things.. Like drugs.. And drunken driving..
And drugs.. These are big problems in the city.. If you talk to a student they talk in English mostly.. But if a person can’t you get an assistant..
I Ok.. So you always manage..
R Ja.. Ja..
I Ok.. As a final question.. How do you feel about the eleven languages being official? Do you think it is a good thing or does it make life more difficult?
R I think.. It is not useful all the languages.. I only have my Afrikaans and English.. And I can understand a little bit of Xhosa.. From the Natal area.. But that is really it..
I But how do you feel about the languages being official?
R I think.. That is their right.. It doesn’t work but that is South Africa.. It is like that.. But I don’t have a problem with the languages..
I And for your work.. It comes with difficulties.. But also with..
R You will find in Potch and the whole North-West that most of the people speak Afrikaans and Tswana.. Or
Xhosa.. So we are not really dealing with all of the languages.. And there is not a lot like.. Dutch people or
German people.. There is actually a Dutch reformed church here.. Do you know where it is?
I No I know it is here but not exactly where.. Ok and so with the official languages you don’t really have a problem.. But it gets more difficult with people coming from over the border..
R Ja the Zimbabwans and Nigerians.. Now that is a problem.. The black people can understand each other.. But we need some help [smiles]
I [smiles] ok I see.. Ok.. I think I am going to turn this off now..
I FINALIZATION
Interview 15, 03-04-2012, 08:30 – 08:50
Eshe, Black female, 9 years within SAPS, Sergeant
Interview in closed office.
I INTRODUCTION
I Ok, can you tell me firstly something about your work in the police?
R Every day is just crime prevention..
I Ok.. Crime prevention.. So you are not behind the complaints counter?
R Yes I am.. Ja.. General it is crime prevention.. People come and report.. And then you attend to complaints..
I Ok.. So you also go in the streets?
R Yeah.. Yeah..
I Ok.. And for how long have you been in the police?
R Nine years..
I Nine years.. Ok.. And you started as a police officer?
R Yes..
I Ok.. And now you are [looks at shoulder pads] sergeant?
R Hmhm.. You start as being a student.. From the student constable.. And after seven years you become sergeant..
So in total it is nine years now..
I Ok.. I see.. And why did you join the Police Service?
R Passion.. But I did not know.. Since ’94.. I got to university.. Then got my diploma in education.. And then applied here.. And now I am still here..
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I Ok.. And do you like it?
R Yes I do like it..
I Because it is your passion..
R Ja.. But sometimes it is a bit challenging.. Because the crime rates are high.. But most of us blacks don’t report crimes because they don’t know the right place to go and get help..
I Ok.. And do you get a lot of reports about that?
R Al lot of?
I Reports..
R Yes of domestic violence.. But they also go to the domestic violence office..
I Ok is there a specific office for that?
R Yes for domestic violence..
I Ok.. And what do you do.. Or how do you feel when a women comes in that reports domestic violence?
R Most of the time.. We women.. We do feel shame for them.. But if they come here I can advise them.. You are a victim, you can’t stay there.. Because some of them they have been abused for many many years.. For the sake of their children.. For the sake of the income.. And they don’t know that there is help out there..
I And then it is good that they finally come here..
R Yes.. But we do advise them.. But then she is going to withdrawal the complaint because her husband is giving the money.. And then after two years she is coming back again.. The main thing is just the money..
I Ok I see..
R So it is a little bit challenging every day.. Because when we talk, they will listen, but when they are out again..
They don’t listen anymore..
I Ok.. And.. How many reports do you normally get in a day?
R It fluctuates.. Sometimes it is many.. Sometimes it is less..
I Ok but like a hundred or three..
R Hmm it differs from day to day.. Today we can receive nothing.. Tomorrow we can receive five.. You don’t know, the person that is going to approach you.. For domestic violence or what or what..
I Ok.. Uhm.. About the languages.. What is your first language?
R The language I speak at home is Tswana. But I am trying to speak Afrikaans when I am here, but some people are just difficult.. Some people.. Most of the Afrikaans people are difficult.. Not all of them, but most of them..
But then we say, let’s compromise.. Use Afrikaans here and there, so I can understand you.. Some of them say no I only speak Afrikaans.. With that.. Not nicely.. We are human also.. I also have a feeling as he has a feeling.. But I just HAVE to be there, they don’t.. Even if you explain “please stay calm”, but sometimes it is very very badly..
I Ok.. And is it generally the majority is Afrikaans that are coming in?
R Yes..
I And does it happen often..?
R Most of the time.. You can almost the whole shift.. Of the two shifts because I am working two shifts in the day and two shifts in the nights.. The days you always get them in the day.. In the night it is more quite.. But during the day.. You can get people that are speaking.. Not nice words.. But at the end of the day they just want someone else.. Sometimes they just see who is in.. They come in, see who is behind the desk, and then go out..
I Yeah? Just to see if there are any..
R Yeah, or they just wait for one person that is busy while another person is free you know.. Yeah..
I Ahh.. But.. How do you feel about that?
R It is not nice.. But you know.. We have to control it, so that it cannot spoil your day..
I Ok.. Stay positive right..
R Exactly.. I am trying to stay positive.. And by going there.. We sit there to help them you know.. So if they don’t want my help.. Their problem..
I Ok.. And what other languages do you speak?
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R Afrikaans a little.. Tswana, Zulu, Xhosa..
I Ok.. And what languages do you most often use in your work?
R In the work it is English.. Even though sometimes people only want to speak Afrikaans.. Sometimes they are there.. Sometimes they are not there..
I Ok.. And with your colleagues.. When you are having a cup of coffee or something..
R My colleagues? Most of them I speak English with them.. They are Tswana and Xhosa.. But they do speak
English when they are on duty. And sometimes it is, what I tell myself, as you work with a lot of people, there will be those who are.. (…)… Sometimes but not always.. There are people that are not nice to you..
Gossiping.. But at the end of the day you are here to work..
I Ok.. And does it differ whether you talk to a white colleague or a colored colleague? That you speak for
R example English to one and Tswana to another?
Yes it differs.. In Tswana I can speak freely.. But in English.. Some words.. But it depends on the person to who I am speaking with.. As long as I understand what you are saying.. But I prefer Tswana.. Because it is my mother tongue..
I Ok I understand.. And when you are going in the streets, when you are going to a complaint or something.. In what language do you address a person?
R Sometimes when you go to the complainant you most of the time get the Afrikaners. Because most of the people in Potchefstroom are Afrikaans.. But if I ask a person can I talk to you in English instead of Afrikaans they go.. ”Ach man..” And then I just have to try to compromise..
I Ok.. So they actually prefer if you speak..
R Their language.. Hmhm..
I Ok.. But when you are going outside.. You are always with a two of you right.. With a couple..
R Yes..
I And do they take into account then that you go for example with someone who speaks Afrikaans? Fluently?
R It sometimes happens.. But most of the time I go with a Tswana.. And then we just try to compromise..
I And do you think, that because of the fact that most of the residents are Afrikaans.. That if they have to come here and compromise.. That that is a barrier for them? That they don’t come here because they have to deal with the language barrier?
R No they do come.. If something is stolen you must come to the police.. And report that.. Sometimes we have to take fingerprints.. No people have to call the police..But mostly he.. We work in Potch and in Kacheng.. But mostly they say they come here, and then they do whatever they want to do..
I Ok.. So you also work in Kacheng..?
R No I mean that if something happened in Kacheng, but the people are more close to this office, they come here to make a report..
I Ok.. I see.. And.. Uhm.. Did it even happen that you had to deal with somebody that came from Zimbabwe.. Or
Nigeria.. That speaks a language that you don’t understand?
R It is English that they understand then much better than the other languages.. If you take time.. You eventually will understand that person..
I Ok.. But it takes more time..
R Exactly..
I Ok.. Because are there like interpreters?
R There are interpreters like if someone comes here and brings someone that can translate.. Yeah..But I never really come to the point that I really need an interpreter..
I Ok.. So when you are facing such a situation.. You are mostly..
R Because most of the people know that English is the medium of language.. At least you must know it.. So most of them.. Like, Nigerians.. They speak English, even though some of the words you can’t understand.. And then they repeat and repeat and then ok.. You want to say this and this and this.. But it takes time..
I I see.. Ok well that is logical I guess.. Do you also drive in the vehicle?
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R Yes I do.. It is a long time ago but yes..
I Ok.. And do you also ever sit in the radio room?
R Yes.. You have to rotate..
I Ok.. And when you get like.. A report from over the radio.. Do you respond then in the same language or is that
R always.. English..
No here and there we mix English and Afrikaans on the radio.. As long as the person you are communicating with us understands it.. Communication communication.. Yeah..
I It is important right.. Yeah.. Uhm let’s see.. And the reports you make? They are all in English?
R The reports meaning?
I Like when you are writing down a complaint..
R Ja it is in our (…occurrence…) book, it is in English.
I Ok.. And does it ever happen that.. An Afrikaans person insists that it is written in Afrikaans?
R Yeah there are those who come in and insist in making a statement in Afrikaans.. Ja we are not denying them..
There is a stamp that needs to be under the statement that the complaint understands what is in the statement..
So they must sign for it.. And if they don’t understand we have to compromise..
I Ok.. Uhm.. Generally speaking, as a final question.. How do you feel about the eleven languages being official?
R Yeah I feel fine but.. There are those languages that we don’t speak.. So we just don’t come across them.. Like maybe the (…San…) languages.. I have attended a few (…San…) classes.. But they don’t come here.. Maybe now and then at the CAC.. And then I ask the person to write down the statement.. But there are those persons who.. Yeah..
I Ok.. So it is sometimes more difficult?
R It takes more time.. Yeah.. The (…San…) languages.. And we do forget them..
I Ok..Ok.. Well that was it already.. Do you have any questions for me?
I FINALIZATION
Interview 16, 04-04-2012, 08:15 – 08:36
Bjorn, White male, 22 years within SAPS, Constable
Interview in open office.
I INTRODUCTION
I Ok.. For how long have you been in the police?
R I have been in the police for.. 22 years.. Ja..I started in 1990.. The first of January [laughs]
I [smiles] Ok.. You know exactly the date..
R Ja I’ll never forget the date.. Because that was the day that my father said I had to go out of the house and get some work [laughs]
I [smiles] Ok.. And.. Can you tell me something about your career so far?
R Ja.. I’ve done quite a lot in my career.. When I started.. I went to Durban and worked there for six months.. And after that I worked at the dog unit for about.. 18 years..And I have been in this station for the last.. Four years..
There has been quite some changes.. But back in the dog unit you know.. Unfortunately I had to move on to another task..
I I see.. And how do you like this job then? Because it is quite different from the dog unit..
R Ja it is quite different but I would like to move on to something more challenging you know.. Every day it is the same work.. I sit the whole day behind a computer.. I just feel like I am in a box.. But you know.. Still every day has something different to offer.. When you walk in you have no idea what kind of complaints you are going to have.. Ja..
I Ok.. So can you then tell me something about what do you do?
R Ok what I do.. I used to do patrols and all that, but now I register complaints on the computer, and open
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“Birds of the same feather flock together” dockets.. And I scan (…) and then give that to the next unit.. That is basically all I am doing.. It is actually a small part of what is going on in the office.. But it needs to be done.. [laughs] And you know.. In the morning it is normally very quiet, but then all of the dockets come after four.. So then I have to hurry up to be ready by seven so than it can be very busy..
I Ah so you have to be a good time planner [smiles] Ok.. And how many complaints do you generally get?
R Mostly 10 to 15.. Ja.. And then I also have to write tickets for the operations, for like drunken driving and stuff..
And that can be a lot more, about thirty a day.. Ja.. So when the students are partying in the weekend, they keep me busy [laughs]
I [smiles] Ok I will tell the students to drink less next time on Saturday.. Ok.. And so you also work the seven to seven shifts?
R Yes, two day shifts and two night shifts.. Ja..
I Ok.. And what sort of reports.. Or complaints do you most often get in?
R Mostly in Potch.. It is theft out of vehicles or theft of motor vehicles.. That means the things they steal out of the car.. Mostly laptops.. And in housebreaking also laptops.. Ja with the laptops we have that like three, four times a day.. You know some people just put it on a seat or something.. And in their house also.. They put it on the table in front of the window.. It is that everyone can see it.. And assaults on the weekends.. Again the students when it is party time [laughs]
I [smiles] Ok I see.. And.. Uhm.. Why did you join the police service?
R Ach.. First I wanted to go to the air force, but they say my eye looks like a rugby ball, it is not completely round.. So then my father said that I really needed to find a job, and I said give me until the end of the month..
And then somehow I found out about recruitment in the police.. So I went to the police and filled in a form..
And I asked please send me to the dog unit, because I’d rather work with animals.. And it happened that way.. I
HAD to get work you know.. But you know it doesn’t really bother, I think I choose the right way to go.. But you know it is a tough job, I lost a lot of hair in the time [laughs]
I [smiles] And was that more the dog unit that was more stressful, or what you do here?
R No over here there is much more stress.. In the dog unit.. You had no one that bothered you.. And here you see a lot of people running around and they ask all this things from you all the time.. And we have another inspection tomorrow.. So there is a lot more stress.. And you know lately they look for any fault..
I Ok I see..That’s not nice.. Uhm.. Ok.. About the languages.. What is your first language?
R English is my first language. All my life until ’91 when I came to Potch.. Then I had to learn Afrikaans, because everyone spoke Afrikaans. So my English has gone backwards since then.. So now it is English and
Afrikaans..
I Ok and any other languages?
R Only swearing! [laughs]
I [smiles] Well that is in all languages right..
R Ja the national language [smiles]
I Ok.. And what languages do you most often speak here, in your working environment?
R Most often English.. The majority.. Or at least all of us understand it. So ja English is the majority language at the moment, ja. Other languages they do speak but I don’t understand.
I Ok.. And does it happen often that people speak a language that you don’t understand?
R Ja.. Ja.. Especially when they are in a group or something.. Ja.. And sometimes you can hear that they are talking about you or something, and then you try to talk to them, but they just talk on in their own language..
Ja.. So.. Ja..
I Ok.. But the language you most often speak with your colleagues is English then..?
R No it is Afrikaans. Look the majority of my colleagues is Xhosa.. And only one.. two.. three speak Afrikaans..
On the shift.. We must speak English.. And stick to the language of the station.. So we must speak English..
I Ok.. Ja..
R But with a few I speak Afrikaans then.. Ja..
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I Ok.. And does it also differ when you are having a coffee break or something?
R Nah not really.. It is about the same all the time.. No if I speak to the captain, we speak in Afrikaans.. And if I speak to other members or (…vreemden…) I speak my English to them.. I prefer English..
I Ok, I see.. And does it also ever happen that you are working behind the complaints desk?
R Ja it happens a lot.. Ja.. Sometimes we need to help out in the front and ja when it is hectic and busy busy I help the people there.. Ja.. We help each other out but it really never going to get done you know..
I Ok.. And what languages do the people that come to the complaints desk most often speak?
R Ja the majority are Xhosa, they come from Kacheng and complain here.. Most of them come here with statements to get (…electricity free…) or.. Ja.. And assaults.. Also.. Ja..
I Ok.. And does it also ever happen.. Because I saw that most of the officers behind the desk are black females.. I interviewed a few of them, and mostly they speak English and Tswana.. What happens if an Afrikaans person is coming in there?
R Some of them speak Afrikaans.. Actually most of them speak Afrikaans but they don’t want to.. They struggle a bit or something, so they ask us to help them.. But most of them can understand.. I think that half of them can do it in Afrikaans.. But if they don’t they tell and I’ll come help them and.. Ja..
I Ok.. And do you think that the different languages make your work more difficult?
R Ja it sometimes makes it more difficult.. When you want to help someone but they don’t want to speak your language.. Like when they are on the phone and they speak Xhosa and they don’t want to speak anything else,
English or Afrikaans.. They just keep to their language.. Then I need to find someone that can help.. So then it can be hard.. Especially when they are drunk.. They want to keep to their language and you can’t get through to them..
I Ok.. And do you think that it.. The language barrier can become a danger to society then.. Because it takes you much longer to do your work and in the meanwhile other crimes are committed..
R No not really.. How can I say.. It is not really a problem.. In the shifts we have a lot of different people and we can help out each other a lot.. So we are trying to help each other out.. And we see what we can do.. So..
I Ok so you always manage..
R Ja I always make a plan.. And on our shift everyone works together.. So.. Ja..
I Ok.. So these were the clients then.. And when you have to deal with an offender..In what language do you address that person?
R Ja again in English or Afrikaans.. But if they speak something else when we take them to the back to the cells the guys over there help us with the language barrier. We explain to them what is happening and we explain what he did wrong.. And there is a form he has to fill in and sign, so they explain to him then.. So there is always people helping us then.. So when there is a language barrier we first have to bring him inside and then the guards explain why he is arrested and they talk to him then.. Ja..
I Ok.. So the procedure is different than because you first bring him in and then..
R Ja sometimes when there is someone around we can ask another vehicle to help us and then we don’t have to bring him in first..
I Ok.. And when you are going out.. In the streets, you always go as a couple.. Do they take into account then that you speak English and they speak African?
R Ja we try to do it all the time.. Sometimes they ask us if they can work with someone else.. They want to work with someone else because a friendship they have made.. But mostly we try to get two different people working together.. It just makes it easier.. Ja..
I Ok.. And when you are speaking on the radio then.. What language do you speak then?
R English.. Ja.. Because they tell you also only English.. Because they can’t speak Afrikaans.. So we try to speak
English, otherwise they moue and.. Ach.. And every now and then you cross over to Afrikaans, and the other time you are crossing back to English.. Achja.. But it is basically English..
I Ok.. And does it ever happen that someone is speaking Xhosa or Tswana over the radio?
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R
I Ok.. But is that allowed.. Because I heard that you are specifically on the radio for safety reasons only speak
English..
R Ja I know.. We tried to force it through.. But still they are talking in their own language so.. But we do mind it when something happens and they start getting excited and speak in their own language, then.. They must speak
English if they want to get help..
I Ok.. I see.. And then as a final question.. How do you feel about the eleven languages being official?
R
Ja you know it happens a lot.. Especially when they explain directions they will speak in their own language..
They understand it just better.. Ja.. Ja..
Ja it is hard you know.. Eleven official languages.. But you have got to accept it.. It is hard you know to sometimes understand someone.. But you know, I don’t have a problem with it.. All the languages are equal..
And I respect it that way..
I Ok.. Well I think this is a nice way to end the interview with.. Do you have any further questions?
I FINALIZATION
Interview 17, 04-04-2012, 08:40 – 09:15
Interview on courtyard
Henri, White male, 27 years within SAPS, Lieutenant
I INTRODUCTION
I Ok can you tell me firstly for how long have you been in the police?
R Yes I have been for 27 years at the police force, for fifteen years I have done riot squat, it changes its name frequently but it remains the riot squat.. Uhm.. The last couple of years here I was posted at the CAC..
I Ok, so that is the complaints office right
R Yes I am actually a supervisor, I see that all the people are doing their jobs and are doing to standard orders. So that is my job.. So I supervise all the departments. Your complaints in front, your complaints outside.. The complains register as well.. Ach everything.. That comes to the police station.. If they need assistance I must go and help to assist the people.. And yes most of all it is supervising..
I Ok.. But that is quiet something different from a riot control..
R Ja.. Riots is more.. A first defense.. But most of the time our places are so far away, so it takes time to mobilize from this place to that place.. Ok so the nearest place is in Kacheng.. Because you are divided in groups.. So you can say the previous group was our Mooirivier area.. It is our furthest station that we serve with the riot squat.. It is actually 250 kilometers from here.. So if there is a situation, and we must employ immediately, it took an hour or two hours because you must mobilize and then you must go with your crew to that place.. The problem here is that we are here in the platteland.. So it is difficult to go to the long distances.. Ach that was nice but I was a bit too long at that..
I Ok.. And for how long are you in this unit now?
R Eight years now..Yeah it is also too long, but I am satisfied [smiles]
I [smiles] Ok.. I see.. And why did you join the police?
R Ach first of all, my reason was.. I had two options.. At that time we had compulsory military service.. And now you’ve got the choice.. Are you going to join the military or are you going to join the police.. Uhm ok the police wasn’t forced upon us but the military service was forced upon us. At that time.. And I’d rather choose the police because their salary at that time was better [smiles] and more important.. It is your own choice.. But once I got in the police, I started to like the police.. And serve the people.. Yes they are sometimes (…) situations, and when you are young you like to diffuse that and all that stuff.. So, ja.. Ach it’s eventually it was to diventiate from the military.. But you went actually also to a military institution like the police was in that time also more or less military orientated.. So but you’ve got the choice, and I decided to go to the police.. And that wasn’t forced upon me, it was on my own will..
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I Ok, I see. That must feel much better.. Ok. And can you describe what an ordinary day looks like for you in the police?
R For me? Ok if you come here, you stand parate. See that all the people is here.. Then you see that the people are posted according to your needs. After that, you must do all your documents and your (…ISAP…) 50, which means that you put on paper where you post the people, and that the people are attending and that there is no absenteeism and stuff. And after that you must go to the computers and see what the previous shift has done.
How they finished, so you just make sure that all that stuff is finished.. And then you must do HRM with your own people. We’ve got the HRM office, but you are the link between the two. So if somebody needs vacation, it must go through us to the HRM. So yes, we do HRM with our people, but we are in-between. We will say to them; ok, you can have leave, but we must schedule it in this and this manner because we only got a certain amount of manpower available. Because we can’t send all the people at the same time on vacation, because then there is not enough people working, so we only got a limited manpower that must work in that period.
I And.. Uhm.. Ok, that’s clear to me. The languages. What is your first language?
R
I Ah so you have to compromise..
R [smiles] No she compromises actually, not me. I am very stubborn. No, I am Afrikaans and it is my home language and my close circle of friends are also Afrikaans. Ach you see it is your heritage.. It is where you come from.. So I prefer to speak Afrikaans. But if we must go to work, you change that attitude. But even in the work, if I can speak Afrikaans, I do it. I am very proud of it.
I Ok. And what language do you most of the time speak with your colleagues?
R
It is Afrikaans. I am borne and bread, they call us the ‘boerkes’, I am a true patriot in Afrikaans, so that is my mother language. I was brought up in that language and I prefer to speak Afrikaans.. Afrikaans is my main language. Although I am married with an English lady..
English. Most of the time English. We speak English at the station to compromise the language barrier. So most of our orders, if we speak on parate, we speak English. If you want to give someone a task you do it in English because everyone understands it.. But sometimes they accommodate us and they speak also Afrikaans with us.
So it depends, if he speaks Afrikaans with you, you speak it back. But if you see ok, he don’t understand, you turn back to English. But there is a couple of people, very good people, that come to you and talk in Afrikaans to accommodate you, they know that you are Afrikaans speaking. Ok that is not all of the police workers, so it is some of the workers that UNDERSTAND Afrikaans and USE Afrikaans. Yes, I think if most of the workers could speak Afrikaans, they would speak to you. Afrikaans.. It is difficult if you don’t know the language. We are very sarcastic in Afrikaans, and most of the people don’t understand the joke..
I So you get misunderstanding..
R Ja ja ja..
I Ok.. And does it also ever happen that somebody doesn’t want to speak Afrikaans?
R Ja.. There is a couple of people who do it.. But ach… It depends.. Sometimes.. The people are very arrogant..
All the people not only our people.. And they want to speak in Afrikaans. And he is not willing to compromise with English, because if he speaks English, there is no problem because we have communication.. But now, most of the clients and I talk about the clients that come here, demand to speak in Afrikaans. And unfortunately; yes, the people can’t help them. But you get your ordinary ‘house’ Afrikaans, and then you get your upgraded Afrikaans.. And that kind of people, they want to be nasty, and they speak high Afrikaans. Then they will speak in terms, like, an African person can’t understand it. But if HE speaks Afrikaans in the ordinary way, like we do it with each other, they can understand it. But the complainants are sometimes spiteful.. They are because there are eleven languages, and he wants to be served in that one. Unfortunately, in our group there are only three people that speak and understand Afrikaans and can have a good dialogue. But we are 28 people.. So the other people, most of them do understand Afrikaans.. But they are afraid to speak it because we’ve got certain terms.. Like one of the terms we are using.. If I translate it direct from Afrikaans to English..
The bullet is through the church…
I We have the same in Dutch, de kogel is door de kerk..
R Exactly, so you know what it means.. In Afrikaans it is ‘de koel is deur de kark’. What it means; it is done. We
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Another example.. If you translate it directly in English, is that there is a ‘witch hunt’. And, in Afrikaans it is
‘heksejach’. They are thinking figurally that we are going to chase witches. And that is difficult for them to understand. But you know the people are spiteful and the police as such as well.. Because you know our problem here is that we work twelve hours.. During the day it is constant that people must help help help help.
And so, at two o’clock, the people go tired.. You are not listening well anymore and your functions are not as sharp as in the morning.. Ok so then people get spiteful and that stuff. But it is mostly, mostly from the public, not our people self. Because the people don’t understand the police. Because in the bank, you wait to withdrawal money.. Here the people can’t wait, they want to be helped right now.. But because it is a free service for the public, they demand now.. And if they don’t help right away they complain at our higher authorities and then the authorities comes down on our people without investigating what the real problem is..
They just must wait because there is a lot of people standing, and most of the time they can’t do it.. And then the problems begin. And now of us are spiteful, I can speak Afrikaans but why must I? Now unfortunately
Potch is Afrikaans.. it has an Afrikaans university as you know, so the majority here is Afrikaans. And they are spiteful [smiles]
I Ok.. So it happens..
R Because my point of view is, if you can speak English and you want to be helped quick.. Rather speak English!
Now what happens here is that most of the people can understand Afrikaans but they can’t write Afrikaans..
And now they just.. Most of the time they say politely; just wait until somebody comes that can speak
Afrikaans.. And sometimes I am outside or I am in the cells, and must finish that job first.. So I can’t come immediately to write down the statement. So if they would have talked in English they would have been helped immediately. So there is spitefulness.. Ja..
I So it takes more time..Ok.. And does it also happen in the streets? That people only want to speak one language?
R It depends.. If you are in trouble.. You will speak any language.. If you Afrikaans, Bilingual, or English speaking.. So you you will change to English because now is an emergency situation. But if it isn’t an emergency situation, yes, they will be spiteful and speak Afrikaans. But.. The policemen are trying to.. What is lovely, what I love.. Is that you sometimes get people, they speak Afrikaans.. But on the other side of the counter the people speak English, and still they understand each other.. And there is sometimes that there is a good conversation when the one speaks Afrikaans and the other speaks English.. And they do understand and respect each other.. And yes this one person wants to speak in Afrikaans, but is willing to do his statement in
English.. So then there is actually very good communication between them, although the one speaks Afrikaans and the other speaks English. Unfortunately.. Your African languages.. Most of us don’t speak. Yes we can understand, but it is the same with us with Afrikaans.. Yes, we are afraid to speak their language, due to we don’t understand it.. We know they are talking about something, but we don’t know for sure.. So that is why people sometimes refuse. I do understand some words, and I can have a conversation is Tswana.. But I am afraid I put the sentences wrong, and then it is totally something else.. And then they are aggressive about it because I said something wrong, but I don’t know what I said.. But as we got the problem they also got the problem. So that is why we speak English to each other so we all know what we say.
I Ok.. And like you said, if someone is in trouble, he will speak any language..
R Off course because I am in trouble [smiles] If there is urgency in something, the people switch over to English.. yes. Because in English you don’t need to repeat yourself.. If you go Afrikaans.. It is difficult.. I can say that most of our people is not spiteful.. But there is that 20%.. And unfortunately Potch is majority Afrikaans.. Due to the university and all that..
I Ok.. And then when you are on the radio, what languages are mostly spoken there?
R It depends in which language they talk to me.. I try to accommodate a person, if a person is talking Afrikaans to me, I talk Afrikaans back. If a person talks English to me, I talk English back. Sometimes the people are very accommodative but they haven’t got a clue what you are saying.. So you switch over to English. But we prefer to speak English, because the problem is ELEVEN official recognized languages.. And if you just speak
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Afrikaans, you should rather speak English. So most of the time, I speak English. But if I can hear that a person is not receiving my message well, I will go to Afrikaans. Or what other.. Well unfortunately I am not very good in Tswana, but I try.. Or I will ask the operator, to help me to translate it.
I And does it ever happen that you are in the street and you are dealing with someone that doesn’t speak English..
Afrikaans..
R Ja, but there is a few in-between. But if we are dealing with a language problem we refer to the next person.
There is also some situations, we have people from Natal, and they speak Zulu.. And that the people here can’t speak Zulu.. But our African people are very good in languages.. Most of them can speak five languages..
Afrikaans, English, and then two other African languages. So most of the time when there is a complaint of a
Zulu language, Xhosa or whatever.. You ask the people who can speak.. But most of the time we are in
English.. People can be helped in English..
I Ok.. I see.. And if the police would offer language courses.. Would you be interested in following one?
R No. Not at all. Let’s be honest.. Language is not one of my strong points.. Writing is one of my weak points..
But I will deviate.. If they say I must do it, due to this and this reason, I will do it. But to do it on my own free will [smiles] No rather not..
I Rather not.. Ok..
R Because language isn’t my strong point.. I haven’t got a problem with speaking to people.. But written.. If they force me to do it I will, but preferably not. Except if they would promote me and send me to a village where people only speak Zulu, then you must adapt. But also they will accommodate in English. It is not so..
Trainsmash for you. If they would promote me to Natal then I would have to improve my language in Zulu..
But on my own will, no.
I Ok.. I see. That is pretty much it already.. Do you think the language differences can endanger society? Like.. It makes your work more difficult..
R Ach.. We must seek in a way. It is the same with the educated persons and a person that is not educated. You must provision for it. Because, to me.. A person that is sweeping the street deserves just as much respect as a my superiors.. Because that person in the street is willing to do the dirty job that I don’t want to do.. So if a person struggles to communicate with you, you must give the person time.. It depends on the person that is in front of you. It can be a beggar and it can be a professor. But all of the complaints are just as urgent. Although the ones persons’ intelligence is lower than the other person, he is doing something I don’t want to do.. So I must give him credit. Sometimes a person can speak well and fluent.. In other circumstances a person can’t speak.. But you have to give him the opportunity.. It is his right. So from my side, there is no problems. Even with you guys from overseas. You want to enjoy our land, so we must give the opportunity to come and enjoy here. Actually what is very interesting, a couple of years ago, we run a judo club here. One of the students, I think he was a chemical engineer, he was from Holland. He joined the club, and at the end he spoke fluently
Afrikaans. It was very interesting, because he is still on my facebook, and he is still corresponding with people in our club in Afrikaans. So if you enjoy our country, and you are willing to spend your money here, yes, then we must show you what kind of country we are.. So.. Languages, there is always something you have to overcome.. We must accept each other. We are different, but that is the beauty of it.. I love my language, and someone else loves his.. But we respect each other.. Because, yes, I want to speak Afrikaans.. But we must adapt. And unfortunately English is the only bilingual language that we can understand all.. And now. Do you enjoy our country so far?
[ conversation about experience with South Africa so far ]
I FINALIZATION
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