FIGHTING between rival villages in the Transkei’s strife-torn Pondoland region, which earlier this year claimed 16 lives in a bloody massacre after a village was completely destroyed, flared anew at the weekend. Police said 48 homes at Luthengele near Port St Johns, some deserted from a May attack in which 60 homes were set alight, were burned down in violent clashes between locals and warriors from neighbouring Lwandlana that erupted on Thursday night and continued over the weekend. Lwandlana was razed to the ground in February this year. Police, who have mounted intensive patrols in the dense bush, have reported no casualties. The war between the villages began in 1979 when a Luthengele cow was seized at Lwandlana. Two Luthengele men were killed when they went to reclaim the animal.