From Wikipedia, hopefully, someone from S.A. has better info!



Cape Mounted Riflemen (1878–1913)

Finally in 1878, the FAMP were fully militarised, as a unit of the Colonial Forces, and renamed Cape Mounted Riflemen.

A change in the Cape Government in 1878, and the new Sprigg Government's expansionist policies, led to outbreaks of conflict, both within the Cape Colony, and around its borders. These conflicts were part of a wider surge of warfare across southern Africa, stemming from the attempt by the London Colonial Office to enforce a system of Britishicon-controlled Confederation onto the region. The CMR were involved in several of the more local conflicts, which directly involved the Cape Colony.[3][4]

In 1879, the CMR fought in the Moorosi campaign, where they gained much distinction. They also fought in the Basutoland Gun War (1880–1881), the Matabeleland campaign (1893–1894), the Bechuanaland campaign in 1897, and the Second Boer War (1899–1902). During these wars, the CMR came to comprise the dominant portion of the whole of the Cape Forces. As before, during peacetime the CMR served as a police force.