Death toll in two weekend mass shootings in South Africa rises to 28

A person wounded when gunmen opened fire on a South African tavern has died in hospital, police said on Monday, taking to 28 the number of people killed in** two** mass shootings in the same weekend in the crime-weary nation.

The weekend of bloodshed has rattled the country, which has one of the world’s highest murder rates with about 60 people killed on average each day, according to police statistics.

Deadly attack

The deadliest attack was west of Johannesburg in an area affected by illicit mining, a highly competitive activity that officials say is controlled by organised syndicates and rival gangs.

Thirteen men and four women were killed late Saturday when gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed the packed bar in the semi-rural township of Wedela, around 80km from central Johannesburg, police said.

“One more victim has died in hospital, bringing the total number of deceased to 18,” they said Monday.

“Only four of the deceased have been identified, two South Africans and two Lesotho nationals.”

The area was gripped by rivalry between gangs involved in illicit mining for gold, the tavern owner told local journalists at the scene, where bloodied clothes lay on the ground.

“Even if they finish investigating, I am scared to continue selling again. I am too scared,” she said, hiding her identity.

Thousands of unregistered miners operate in abandoned mining shafts around the country, particularly the gold fields around Johannesburg.

They come from across southern Africa, including the kingdom of Lesotho which is embedded within South Africa.

Mass shootings

In a separate mass shooting, gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 more at a shisanyama in a township outside Cape Town early on Sunday.

In video clips shared on social media, revellers can be seen dancing and drinking before a burst of gunfire rings out, sending people scrambling for cover.

Police said it was not clear what prompted the attack in Lwandle, but one official said it may have been business rivalry.

Elsewhere in Cape Town, police on Saturday found two men dead with multiple gunshot wounds inside a car in the sprawling Khayelitsha township, and a third next to the vehicle, police said. A fourth man died on the way to hospital.

Two more people were shot and killed in another informal settlement in the city, which is a hotspot for extortion in which gangs demand “protection fees” from a range of small businesses.

South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms and shootings are common, often linked to organised crime, illegal mining, gang violence and extortion, experts say.

There have been at least 41 mass killings this year at the cost of 196 lives, said Julian Rademeyer, an adviser for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC).

There was another mass attack on Tuesday last week when 11 people – including a pregnant woman – were killed after gunmen stormed a homestead in a township in the eastern port city of Durban. Police have not announced any arrests.

In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the army to crime-plagued areas around Johannesburg and Cape Town after describing organised crime the “most immediate threat” to the country’s democracy and economic development.

The weekend bloodshed further rattled South Africans already alarmed by the discovery of the bodies of 11 women, one of them on Sunday, in 10 weeks in Johannesburg’s Ekurhuleni area.

Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, with some found stripped of their clothes and showing signs of sexual assault, police said.

In the same area, a 23-year-old woman was shot and killed early Monday during an alleged robbery while she was on the way to work, police said.

“Preliminary investigations have not established any link between this incident and the recent cases involving the bodies of women found in Ekurhuleni,” they said in a statement.

Police have urged anyone with information that could assist any of the investigations to please come forward.