The AK47 and fire-bomb attack in Soweto's Orlando West on Wednesday night has heightened fears of a spiral of revenge unleashed by the "football club" controversy. The incident, which left one young girl dead and two other people injured, brought the number of deaths publicly linked to the football club feud to four, aside from numerous house-burnings and alleged assaults. If, as many community members were convinced yesterday, the attack was launched to avenge the murder of "football club" member Maxwell Madondo, the auguries for an end to the bloodshed are poor. For this would mean that a revenge killing had taken place in response to what is believed to have been a revenge killing. It has been widely speculated that Madondo was murdered on January 13 by youths who were threatened by the football club.
Police yesterday confirmed that the possibility of a connection between Wednesday night's attack on the home of Dudu Cili and the Madondo case is being investigated. A 13-year-old girl died and a woman and another girl suffered burns in the attack. There was tangible sense of grief and deep anger – among neighbours and relatives when the Weekly Mail visited the scene yesterday. Cili, the owner of the house and an organiser of the Federation of Transvaal Women, was reportedly detained at 5am on Wednesday morning at her home. According to Cili's brother Harold, security forces had been looking for her son Sibusiso – also known as "Sponge" in connection with the Madondo murder, but had detained her after finding he was not there.
Community sources say "Sponge'' received a warning a week ago that 1 he was on a "football club hit-list". ' He went into hiding on Sunday. A police statement issued yesterday confirmed that "an occupant of the house was detained … by members of the Soweto Murder and Robbery Unit, in connection with the investigation into the murder of Maxwell Madondo". Eyewitnesses said that police had brought Cili to her house for 15 minutes last night to inspect the damage. Some 17 hours after Cili's arrest – around 9pm on Wednesday – her cousin Barbara Cili was sitting in the lounge of the small home watching television with two small girls, one the daughter of the next-door neighbour, when the balaclava-clad attackers arrived. Barbara Cili told the Weekly mail she went outside to investigate the sound of the gate opening. She found a man armed with an AK-47 standing at the fence of the small plot… – Shaun Johnson & Thami Mkhwanazi
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.