Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr.) a special constable, only partially trained, used to keep order in townships during a state of emergency.

1986		East Province Herald 24 Sept. 1: The row over the 1,000 ‘kitskonstabels’ undergoing a three-week crash course at Koeberg raged on yesterday [DSAE].
1995		S. Jacobs Enemy Within 150: Sitting on the cold, grey steps, shotgun propped against his leg, was a black kitskonstabel, one of the ‘instant policemen’ created from the townships.
1998		P. Parker In the Shadow of Sharpeville 30: Indeed, according to one Cape Town kitskonstabel, ‘Most of the special constables were hard-line vigilantes.’.
2000		I. van Kessel Beyond Our Wildest Dreams 85: More serious is the fact that the government’s vigilante and kitskonstabel strategy is based on the capacity of the state to recruit rural and unemployed.