27 killed in twin mass shootings in South African townships, four hours apart
Eight gunmen with AK-47s stormed a Johannesburg-area bar on Saturday night; hours later, a second attack hit a Cape Town township — the third mass shooting in South Africa in five days.
Eight gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols walked into a bar in Wedela township, southwest of Johannesburg, on Saturday night and opened fire on customers drinking outside — then moved inside to keep shooting. Seventeen people died: 13 men and four women. Fifteen more were wounded. The killers searched some patrons and took their mobile phones, torched two vehicles, and fled. Four hours later, in Lwandle township near Cape Town, a second group of gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 at a store. No one has been arrested in either attack.
The two shootings, which police announced Sunday, came just five days after another mass shooting at a house party in KwaMakhutha township south of Durban killed 11 people, including a pregnant woman. No arrests have been reported in that case either, according to ABC News and the Seattle Times.
In the Cape Town attack, five victims were declared dead at the scene; the other five died on the way to hospital, according to CBS News. Police said they were searching for multiple suspects but did not give an exact number.
Police have not confirmed a motive for either weekend attack. South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and police and crime experts have long identified the high number of illegal guns in circulation as one of the country's most intractable problems, according to CBS News and ABC News. The homicides mostly affect the country's poorest communities, and police have linked some to criminal gangs.
The phenomenon of mass shootings — defined here by coordinated attacks involving multiple gunmen — is becoming more common in South Africa, according to experts cited by ABC News and the Seattle Times. Recent incidents include a June shooting in a poor Johannesburg neighborhood that killed 12 people, and two attacks in December that together left 21 dead.
South Africa recorded 5,427 homicides in the three-month period from April to June — an average of nearly 60 a day — according to official police statistics cited by ABC News. Shootings are the most common form of homicide.
The scale of the problem prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy soldiers to high-crime areas around Johannesburg, Cape Town, and elsewhere in March, in a yearlong operation. Announcing the deployment, Ramaphosa said crime by organized gangs was the biggest threat to South Africa's democracy and economic development. Some critics viewed the move as an admission that police were failing, according to ABC News and the Seattle Times.
Crime by organized gangs was the biggest threat to South Africa's democracy and economic development.— Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa
South Africa has repeatedly turned to the military in moments of crisis — to enforce Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, to restore order during riots sparked by the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma in 2021, and to respond to a wave of truck burnings in 2023, according to CBS News. The weekend's back-to-back massacres suggest that, for now, neither police nor soldiers have broken the cycle.
Why it matters — Three mass shootings in five days — with no arrests — illustrate how coordinated, multi-gunman attacks on ordinary social spaces are accelerating in South Africa's townships even as the government deploys soldiers to curb them.
⚠ Not yet confirmed
- One of the attacks may relate to a prior incident
- headline reference to both attacks occurring 'at South African bars' (second incident was at a store)
Reported by cbsnews.com, abcnews.com, nytimes.com, seattletimes.com
