Part 1: Short history of the creation of South Africa.

The original inhabitants of South Africa are the San people who moved over a wide area of southern Africa for thousands of years. You will still find their descendants in remote parts of the Kalahari. The Kalahari covers most of Botswana, as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa.

The San were hunter-gatherers, living off the land by hunting with small bows and arrows and eating edible roots and berries. They did not use metals and their weapons were made of wood, bones and stone. They were migratory and did not build permanent settlements. They lived in rock shelters or in the open by erecting crude shelters from twigs or animal skins and used ostrich eggs for storing and holding liquid.

Their lifestyle did not change for tens of thousands of years till about 2000 years ago when the met Bantu-speaking people who started to move into the region. The San acquired domestic stock, sheep and cattle, from these Bantu-speaking people and called themselves Khoikhoi (meaning: “men of men” or “real people”).
These Bantu-speaking people were also starting to establish themselves within the borders of present-day South Africa. Evidence shows that they even occupied northern Transvaal (now Limpopo province) as early as 1500 years ago and coexisted with the Khoikhoi in the eastern Cape (now Eastern Cape province) about 1000 years ago.

The numbers of the hunter-gatherers, the San started to dwindle.

Nguni and Sotho-Tswana immigrants arrived about 700 years ago.

About 500 years ago the Khoisan established themselves as the dominant society of the Cape.
Khoisan is a term for the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non-Bantu languages, combining the Khoikhoi (formerly "Hottentots") and the Sān peoples (formerly "Bushmen"). These are what is considered the original and only indigenous people of South Africa. Please note, of South Africa, not Africa.

Europeans in South Africa: 1488 Bartolomeu Dias arrived at Baia dos Vaquieros (now Mossel Bay) and is historically seen as the first European in South Africa. He came into contact with Khoikhoi and most likely traded with them. After this landing he rounded the Cape to open the European trade route to the East.
1498 Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and stopped at Mossel Bay and Terra do Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) on his way to opening the trade route to India.

During this time there was no European settlement, only the odd stranded sailors.

1652 the first European settlement started when the Dutch established a refreshment station at the Cape (Cape Town).

Africans (Bantu-speaking people) in South Africa (Note: the word “Bantu” is used here as reference to the collective language and not in the derogative meaning it developed during Apartheid):
Archaeologists are mutually of the view that Bantu-speaking people arrived in southern Africa more or less at the same time as Europeans. Although not exactly certain, but it is believed that “South African Africans” originated from the Niger and the Congo deltas. It is known that Bantu-speaking people was already established in the Transvaal (Limpopo, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga provinces) and Natal (KwaZulu-Natal) by 300AD, and in the Transkei (part of KwaZulu-Natal now) by 700AD.
By the time Portuguese sailors came to South African shores, other than Khoikhoi, two main language groups had emerged: Nguni (collective for Zulu- and Xhosa-speaking people) and Sotho. Also, smaller groups of Venda and Tsonga.

This is a short version to show how the people of South Africa came about. It is important to know as in the next part “Policing before policing” I will demonstrate how this led to conflict and what forms of policing existed during that period.