Zone 12 in Sebokeng, a township outside Johannesburg, had been the scene of many massacres in the years before South Africa's first democratic election. "Invisible" gunmen came out in the night to kill arbitrarily, leaving the township a tense war-zone.

On the night of filming, Aviva, a young "comrade" who works to defend the township at night, takes one crew to an ANC affiliated "Self Defense Unit" (SDU) vigil for a murdered resident. Another crew spends the night with Amelia, a housewife terrified by nightfall; and a third follows a member of the South African Police's "Internal Stability Unit" (ISU), which patrols the township in armored cars from dusk to dawn each night. As the night passes, SEBOKENG BY NIGHT conveys the experience of township life in the midst of murderous conflict, and the toll the violence takes on ordinary people on all sides.