Nine people have been killed and ten others wounded after gunmen opened fire at a bar in the Bekkersdal township near Johannesburg, authorities said on Sunday. The attack, which occurred just before 1 a.m., is the second mass shooting in South Africa this month.
Deputy provincial police commissioner Major General Fred Kekana told SABC television that most attackers used pistols, while one carried an AK-47 rifle. “They entered the tavern and randomly shot at the patrons, unprovoked,” he said. Three victims died inside the bar, while others were killed as they fled. The gunmen then searched the wounded and stole valuables, including mobile phones.
The attack comes after a shooting at a tavern near Pretoria on 6 December, in which 12 people, including a three-year-old child, were killed. In the Bekkersdal incident, the dead included a driver for an online car-hailing service who was passing by.
Police have launched a manhunt for the attackers and appealed for public assistance. “It’s pure criminality,” Kekana said. South Africa, the most industrialised country on the continent, faces high crime rates, much of it driven by organised networks and gangs. The country is flooded with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are common, often fuelled by gang rivalry and competition among informal businesses.
Earlier this week, a popular former radio presenter known as DJ Warras was shot dead in central Johannesburg. In another high-profile killing, a witness in a corruption inquiry, Marius Van der Merwe, was shot dead in front of his family on 5 December. South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates, with an average of 63 people killed daily between April and September this year, according to police data.
