Two mass shootings separated by roughly four hours and more than 1,200 kilometres killed at least 27 people in South Africa between Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday. Another 26 were wounded. By Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been made in either case.
The first and deadlier attack took place in Wedela, a semi-rural township southwest of Johannesburg. According to police, eight men armed with assault rifles and pistols arrived at around 9.30pm local time and opened fire first on customers outside a bar, then on those inside. Seventeen people were killed — 13 men and four women — and at least 15 were wounded.
The gunmen took victims' mobile phones, set two vehicles on fire and fled in two cars. Police are working on the theory of retaliation: investigators say there was a violent incident at the same venue last month.
"We managed to get clear pictures of the suspects, and we will get them," said Major General Fred Kekana of the South African police, in remarks reported by Channels Television.
Second attack in the Cape Town area
About four hours later, in the early hours of Sunday, a second attack struck Lwandle, a township in the Cape Town metropolitan area. The shooting began at a store attached to an entertainment venue where a barbecue was under way. Ten people were killed — two of them women — and 11 were wounded. Five victims died at the scene; the others while being taken to hospital.
Police said more than one suspect took part in the attack, without specifying how many, and deployed specialised units to both townships.
A pattern repeating for a week
The two cases come five days after another shooting, on 22 September, that killed at least 11 people at a house party in the Durban area. It is the third mass-casualty episode in little more than a week.
The scale of the problem shows up in the averages: South Africa records around 60 homicides a day, one of the highest rates in the world outside armed conflict zones. President Cyril Ramaphosa said security forces must bring crime down and that the country cannot tolerate indiscriminate shootings.
The combined death toll from the weekend attacks amounts to less than half a day of the national homicide average — which explains why episodes of this kind, shocking as they are, are not exceptional in the country. What stands out in Wedela is the scale concentrated at a single address: "Seventeen people and maybe even more have died, this has never happened here," a township resident said.
With information from the Associated Press and Channels Television.
