JOHANNESBURG — A brutal shooting attack at a township tavern has claimed nine lives and left at least ten others wounded, marking South Africa’s second major mass shooting incident within three weeks. The violence erupted shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday in Bekkersdal township, approximately 46 kilometers west of Johannesburg.
According to police reports, approximately twelve unidentified assailants arrived in a white minibus and silver sedan before opening indiscriminate fire on patrons at the KwaNoxolo tavern. The gunmen continued their random shooting spree while fleeing the scene, with some victims being targeted on adjacent streets.
Provincial Police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Fred Kekana confirmed to SABC television that among the deceased was a driver working for an online car-hailing service who had been waiting outside the establishment. The attack has prompted an intensive manhunt led by Gauteng Serious and Violent Crime Investigations in coordination with the Crime Detection Tracing Unit.
This tragedy represents the latest in a series of tavern shootings that have plagued South Africa in recent years. Earlier this month, a similar attack at an unlicensed bar near the national capital resulted in twelve fatalities and thirteen injuries. In 2022, another Johannesburg township witnessed sixteen deaths in a single shooting incident, while four people were killed the same day in a separate provincial bar shooting.
South Africa continues to grapple with one of the world’s highest homicide rates, recording nearly 26,000 killings in 2024 alone—averaging more than seventy deaths daily. Firearms remain the predominant weapon in these homicides, with authorities noting that despite relatively stringent gun control laws, illegal weapons fuel the ongoing violence across the nation of 62 million people.