South African Police Service Special Task Force

South African Police Service Special Task Force
Security simulation at Air Force Base Swartkop
Active	1976 – present
Country	South Africa
Branch	South African Police Service
Role	Domestic Counterterrorism and Law Enforcement
Size	~ 90 operators
Part of	Under control of Division Operational Response Services
Stationed in	Pretoria, Durban or Cape Town
Nickname(s)	Taakies
Battle honours	Rhodesia
Commanders
Notable commanders	Major JJ de Swardt Colonel Bert Wandrag

The South African Police Service Special Task Force (SAPS STF) is the special operations element of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The STF has a formidable reputation in counterterrorism and insurgency and hostage rescue. Unlike most civilian/police counter-terrorist units around the world, the special task force is also trained to conduct military special operations and has done so on many occasions, operating with their military counterparts, especially during the long 30-year border war.

In 1967 about 2000 members of the South African Police were deployed to guard the northern border of Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) to assist Rhodesian security forces in maintaining law and order in the country as guerilla attacks became more frequent during the Rhodesian Bush War. These police members proved to be ill-equipped and ineffective at dealing with guerilla warfare and terrorism. As a result of these events the Security Branch of the Police began to envision a special police unit to deal with high-risk situations such as hostage situations. Captain J.J. de Swardt of the Security Branch of the Police as well as Sergeant Roelf de Plooy (a counter insurgency (COIN) instructor), both veterans of the deployments in Rhodesia against Zimbabwe African National Union rebels, began a grass roots attempt to form a group of police representatives with a shared vision of formalising a police-based special forces unit. They began to train candidate police officers in survival and bush skills to execute high-risk COIN operations and drastically reduce friendly fatalities.

After the infamous Munich massacre 5 September 1972 where members from the Israeli Olympic Team were taken hostage and murdered by the terrorist group Black September, countries around the world saw the need to establish specialised police units to deal with high-risk situations such as hostage release rescues. The senior staff of the South African Police chose not to create one of these units as a similar situation did not seem likely at the time in South Africa. Captain J.J. de Swardt and Sergeant Roelf de Plooy however continued to train an informal team of police officers after hours and over weekends and determination grew over time among these members.