Many areas on the Rand experienced politicised conflict, but nowhere as intensely as the streets, squatter camps, and hostels of Thokoza and Katlehong. These became battlegrounds for the better part of four years. Thousands of residents mobilised for combat and communal violence directly affected hundreds of thousands more. ISD Unit 6 maintained a permanent presence, while other ISD and SADF forces were posted on a temporary basis. The violence assumed different forms including massive street battles, hostel raids into the surrounding areas, attacks on hostels, assassinations, massacres and skirmishes with security forces. Casualties ran into the thousands and militants’ campaigns to secure territory and expel suspected enemy supporters created enormous insecurity, resulted in substantial material damage and displaced much of the population.

The prelude to the formal ANC–IFP conflict was provided first by the early 1990 Katlehong taxi violence that pitted migrant Zulu men against township youth and, secondly, by the Zulu–Xhosa fighting that consumed Phola Park and Khalanyoni Hostel. With the IFP concentrating its recruiting efforts in hostels and the ANC positioning itself as the champion of township communities, these clashes festered and swelled into an all-out war between ANC and IFP supporters. At the centre of this war stood six IFP-dominated hostels. The ANC– IFP conflict across the Rand was waged between the inhabitants of IFP-controlled hostels and neighbouring township residents. Parts of Soweto, Sebokeng, Vosloorus, Alexandra and many other townships experienced this pattern of violence. However, only Katlehong and Thokoza featured such a density of IFP hostels in a relatively small area and this concentration of power enabled the IFP to contest these townships throughout the transition period. In Thokoza, a complex comprising three side-by-side hostels – Mshayazafe, Khutuza and Madala – all front Khumalo Street.