The years leading up to the first South African democratic elections in 1994 were marked by a sharp increase in violent clashes between the black nationalist Inkhata Freedom Party (IFP) and the non-racial African National Congress (ANC) led by Nelson Mandela. In its determination to win the elections, the apartheid government led by the National Party both funded and fuelled the IFP's campaign against the ANC. The government trained and armed Inkhata hit squads that became incorporated into the KwaZulu police force to keep ‘law and order’ in their regions. Despite the 1991 National Peace Accord between the ANC and IFP, the violence continued. The IFP formed ‘Self-Protection Units’ (SPUs) while the ANC formed ‘Self-Defence Units’ (SDUs) recruited from radicalised youth in order to protect their respective communities.

When ANC military cadre Bongani Linda was asked in 1991 to train the ANC Student Defence Force's Self-Defence Unit outside Johannesburg, he courageously decided to try to negotiate with the IFP rather than fight them. ‘Why should the oppressed kill each other?’ he asked himself. To him it was clear that the violence between ANC township residents and IFP migrant workers living in hostels on the township's edges was ‘orchestrated by the white man’. Since Linda was both Zulu and ANC, brokering peace with the IFP would be a task of not just political, but also personal reconciliation. He proposed that the two sides hold a battle on the soccer field with a ball, instead of in the streets with guns.