Summary
Members of the street and area committees that functioned autonomously in the townships during the unrest peaking in the mid 1980's, were integrated into branch structures of the ANC. This was not the case for members of the liberation army, who maintained their own structures until the MK structure was disbanded in December 1993. The marshals were not totally integrated into political branch structures, but were organized under a parallel hierarchy from branch level upwards. When it was decided by the ANC leadership to disband MK, a decision was taken that the marshal structures would be maintained and trained for community policing and development tasks in the framework of the Reconstruction and Development Plan.
Soon after the 1994 elections there was an eery lull and the undertakings regarding the marshals left on the back burner. The leadership of the Eastern Cape and Northwest marshal structures came together and made supplication at Shell House (ANC Head Quarters) for progress. They were given the go-ahead to design their own plan for the future. This they did by staying in touch with members of the United Nations Observer Mission South Africa (UNOMSA) and were soon taken in under the wing of the UNDP.
After a number of years of development plans the Northwest Premier decided to take over the marshals funding and devote it to his Adult Basic Education and Training Department (ABET). The marshal structures were disbanded.
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