Armed criminals shot randomly and stole victims’ belongings in the country’s second massacre of its kind this month.
Nine people died when gunmen opened fire in a bar on the outskirts of Johannesburg in the early hours of Sunday (21), police said. This is the second such shooting this month. Ten other people were injured in the early morning attack at a bar located in the Bekkersdal neighborhood, in a gold mining area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of the city.
The attack follows a shooting at a bar near Pretoria on December 6, when gunmen killed twelve people, including a three-year-old child.
Police initially reported that 10 people died in the attack on the bar in Bekkersdal just before 1am (8pm Brasília time), but later revised the number of victims downwards.
Most of the men were armed with pistols and one of them was carrying an AK-47 rifle, Deputy Provincial Police Commissioner Major General Fred Kekana told broadcaster SABC at the scene of the crime. “They entered the bar and randomly shot patrons without provocation,” he said.
Three people were killed inside the bar and others as they fled the scene, with the attackers continuing to shoot as they fled, he said.
“It was also reported that after shooting people, they searched them. They took their belongings, including cell phones,” Kekana said. Among the dead was a driver for an app-based transport service that passed through the area. “It’s pure crime,” Kekana said. The police began a search for the attackers and asked for the public’s help.
Crime wave
South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized country, faces a high crime rate, largely driven by organized networks and gangs. The country is full of firearms, both legal and illegal, and shootings are common, often driven by gang rivalries and competition between informal businesses.
The bar hit in the attack in Pretoria earlier this month was a clandestine establishment in a hostel for migrant workers in the Saulsville neighborhood. Among the dead were children aged three, 12 and 16.
The country was also shocked by the murder, in broad daylight, in the center of Johannesburg last week, of a popular former radio presenter known as DJ Warras.
The 40-year-old man, whose real name was Warris Stock, was shot dead on December 16 outside a building he had visited on work for a private security company.
In another high-profile murder, a witness in a corruption investigation was shot to death in front of his family on December 5, just weeks after testifying against a municipal police chief.
The murder of Marius Van der Merwe, 41, has reignited debate about the persecution of whistleblowers who provide information related to crimes and corruption, including in the public sector and in cases involving government officials.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with an average of 63 people killed per day between April and September, according to police data.
In one of the worst shooting massacres in recent months, 18 relatives were shot dead on a rural property in the Eastern Cape province in September 2024. The victims, who were gathered for a traditional ceremony, were aged between 14 and 64, 15 of whom were women. Several men were arrested.
*With information from AFP
Published by Nícolas Robert
