United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 called for the end to South Africa's military buildup but allowed for police units.
In 1979 South Africa promptly created a paramilitary unit called Koevoet which was designated as a strictly police element.
Once again, to limit casualties among the South African conscripts, locals were recruited to form a special unit that would be highly active on the hottest areas.
Originally formed to be an intelligence gathering unit they quickly switched to a mainly "search and destroy" role.
Bounty incentives for kills, prisoners and captured weaponry attracted a distasteful element to the unit.
Strategies included impersonating insurgents, interrogation and intimidation(read: torture when necessary), patrols and following up on recent attacks.
When suspicious tracks were found they would be followed up using Casppir armored vehicles with trackers running out front.
By leapfrogging or sending out one vehicle further ahead to see if the tracks could be found, and if they were, the vehicles behind would race to catch up, they were able to gain on rapidly retreating insurgents on foot.
By such methods they would, after a decade, be responsible for killing or capturing some 3,225 guerrillas and fighting an estimated 1,615 engagements.
They did however become notorious for many questionable if not downright atrocious practices.
Such as photographing themselves with their "kills" like hunting trophies
and strapping the bodies of dead insurgents to their vehicles or dragging the bodies through villages to intimidate the locals.
The SADF did not approve of many of these practices since they were rather crude and undermined their "hearts and minds" campaigns. Since they were a police contingent they were however not subject to the military.
Below is a documentary on Koevoet from youtube with some rather lengthy operational footage, covering typical follow up type search and destroy missions, culminating in a "contact" or engagement with insurgents on foot.
Previous posts in this series can be found at the bottom of this post:
The South African Border War - 1976, The end of a chapter and the beginning of a new phase.
The South African Border War - Mines, Mines did I say mines?
The South African Border War - Enter the Ratel
The South African Border War - The United Nations Security Council Resolutions
The South African Border War - Operation Reindeer begins.
The South African Border War - Operation Reindeer - The Cassinga Fiasco
The South African Border War - The South West Africa Territorial Force