At least 15 people have died after a shooting at a bar in the South African township of Soweto on Sunday, according to the country’s public broadcaster SABC. Several people were also injured, local authorities said.
The incident unfolded shortly after midnight, when a group of men armed with rifles and 9-millimeter pistols entered the bar in the Nomzamo informal settlement near Johannesburg and started shooting “randomly” at the patrons, Gauteng Police said in a statement.
Police say that the suspects are still on the run, and they have asked anyone who saw them come forward.
“It’s not good. When you look at the piles of bodies, you can tell that each of those people was trying to get out of the tavern “Elias Mawela, the police chief of Gauteng, told the South African news station ENCA.
Mawela said the police are yet to determine details on the motive or why the people at the tavern were targeted. “I do not doubt that with the cooperation of the community here, we will be able to crack this case,” he added.
South African Police Service (SAPS) officers set up a perimeter around a crime scene while pathologists check it out. People gather at the scene of an overnight bar shooting in Soweto, South Africa, Sunday, July 10, 2022.
‘Every Single Violent Death is Unacceptable’
In a separate shooting incident in a bar in Sweetwaters in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday evening, four other people were also killed, police said Sunday.
The Provincial Commissioner of KwaZulu-Natal, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, said in a statement that at least 12 people were shot after two men entered the tavern and “randomly opened fire.”
As with the shooting in Soweto, police said the suspects were still on the run and a manhunt was in progress.
In the wake of the violence, the South African National Civic Organisation in Gauteng called on the government to reinforce gun regulations in the country, according to SABC.
In a statement from his office on Sunday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa sent his condolences to the families of those who were killed in both attacks.
“As a country, we can’t let violent criminals terrorize us in this way, no matter where it happens,” Ramaphosa said. “As a government, citizens, and civil society structures, we must all work even more closely together to improve social and economic conditions in communities, reduce violent crime, and stop the illegal circulation of guns.”
“Every single violent death is unacceptable and worrying, and killings on the scale we have seen in Soweto, Pietermaritzburg, and previously Khayelitsha must spur us into a collective effort to build communities and make South Africa an unsafe place for criminals,” he said.
The deadly weekend happened as the country was still mourning the deaths of 22 young people, some as young as 13, who died last month at a tavern in East London under mysterious circumstances that haven’t been explained yet.
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