While the apartheid system is central to an understanding of South Africa, it is also important to recognize the different levels on which legal social control operates. These include the formal law of the official government, the defacto implementation of law by police agencies with broad discretionary powers, and the various mechanisms of social control which operate in the black townships. Black South Africans are divided among those who advocate an authentic Western-style rule of law and those who favor alternative legal structures. While most white citizens favor maintenance of the status quo, a minority has sought to reveal how the pretentions of the official legal ideology have oppressed the black population. This analysis differentiates between the inherent illegitimacy of the system, the State's promotion of legitimation claims, and the forms or levels of legitimation beliefs among the different populations. 49 references (Author abstract modified)