With the focus on post-disaster relief provision in Johannesburg following the 2016 floods, this article explores how South African local government and non-governmental actors conceive of compounding vulnerability and conflict within urban disaster governance. It reveals the diverse strategies employed to navigate violent conflict in the cyclical experience of disaster and reconstruction that the predominantly migrant population experiences in the Setswetla informal settlement. Rendered visible in moments of disaster and recovery are the spatial politics and multi-dimensional nature of conflict that unfold across various levels of urban governance and in the affected community and effectively construct a disaster citizenship that makes risk reduction and community cohesion impossible in the eyes of disaster managers. Based on a set of expert interviews, this research integrates conflict and disaster studies to shed light on how the conflict-disaster interface materializes, and is operationalized, in urban settings. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.