SOUTH African police were swarming in the streets of the black Soweto township yesterday after gunmen killed eight men in an attack at a workers hostel.
A police spokesman, Mr Govindsamy Mariemuthoo, said the eight victims were from the Zulu heartland province of KwaZuluNatal and were shot dead in three attacks on the men only Dube hostel late on Tuesday.
"Five gunmen first opened fire at a room where they killed four men. They went on and shot dead three other men who were seated in a car which was parked inside the hostel's premises," he said. Another man was killed when the gunmen opened fire at another room before fleeing, he added.
"Our area police commissioner has instructed our members to step up patrols in the township and around the scene of the attack. We have a tense but quiet situation," Mr Mariemuthoo said.
The motive was not known but eyewitnesses have given police details about one of the suspects.
It was reminiscent of tit for tat political battles before the 1994 all race elections between supporters of the Zulu leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and his Inkatha Freedom Party and their township neighbours from the African National Congress, violence monitors said.
Worker hostels, some housing up to six men to a room, girdle many of South Africa's industrial cities. They were created by the apartheid authorities as camps for black migrant workers providing cheap labour, particularly to Johannesburg mines.
The hostels have a history of tribal conflict, sparked mainly by feuds transported from rural areas to the cities and by cultural differences. Mr Mariemuthoo, however, could not say if the victims had been Inkatha supporters or from where the attackers had come.
One violence monitor from the Human Rights Committee said the attack suggested a "resurgence of political intolerance which could fuel new party political killings".
"There has been no peace between township residents and hostel dwellers who are perceived to be Inkatha supporters. The only thing is that they have not been fighting for some time now," Mr Makubetse Sekhonyane said.
"In order to remove the political stigma associated with the hostels the government has to change them into proper habitation," he added.
Wives of hostel residents, forbidden from moving to the cities under apartheid have lobbied to be allowed to join their husbands in the hostels and end separations that last many months or longer.