Something a little different today- although I have been collecting SADF kit for a while now, sometimes oddball kit comes across my path as well and today we are looking at an example of a sports vest from the South African Police:

The South African Police had been founded in 1913 and was to remain the nation’s police service until the end of minority rule in 1994. During the 1970s and 1980s, a large part of the South African Police’s duties revolved around public order duties and preventing civil unrest. This often elicited a robust response and so fitness of police officers was important as they were in a physically demanding role.

The sports vest seen here has a central band of blue, with two gold lines, the official colours of the service which were in use at least as early as 1981:

The inside of the vest has an embroidered label and as this is not a military garment there is no stores code:

Whilst I am not intending to collect a lot of South African police uniform and equipment, this is an interesting little addition to the collection and if more bits cross my path I am quite happy to add them to my little South African collection.