{"id":2167012,"date":"2026-09-27T08:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2167012"},"modified":"2026-09-27T08:40:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:40:02","slug":"two-mass-shootings-in-south-africa-leave-28-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2167012","title":{"rendered":"Two mass shootings in South Africa leave 28 dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/ccd0\/live\/83714c70-ba4b-11f1-952f-c5888b744c34.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Gunmen torched vehicles as they fled the scene of a mass shooting at bar near Johannesburg <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Twenty-eight people have been killed in two mass shootings hours apart in South Africa, the latest gun violence to hit the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Eighteen people were killed when eight gunmen stormed a bar close to Johannesburg on Saturday evening, with 14 more injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a separate shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning, 10 people were killed outside an entertainment venue in a township near Cape Town and a further 11 were injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world and has struggled to contain gang-related gun violence in recent years. Police have not given a definitive motive for either of the latest attacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In Johannesburg, gunmen opened fire on customers outside the bar before continuing the attack inside and torching two vehicles before fleeing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police said only four of those killed have been identified so far.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Gauteng Police Commissioner Lt Gen Tommy Mthombeni said people from Ethiopia and Lesotho were among those caught up in the shooting, but that the vast majority were South African.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He also said police believed the motive behind the shooting was robbery, as personal belongings had been taken, but that they could not rule out turf wars between illegal mining groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Shot<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In Johannesburg, gunmen torched two vehicles after opened fire on customers at a bar.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mining without permission in abandoned shafts or dump sites is a persistent problem in South Africa, causing numerous deaths from unsafe conditions. Authorities say the miners are typically undocumented migrants recruited by organised crime gangs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier, deputy provincial police commissioner Maj Gen Fred Kekana said the attack may have been a retaliation for an incident last month, in which one person was killed and another wounded, according to news agency AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said at the scene that police had clear pictures and in some cases names for the suspects. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In Cape Town, five victims died at the scene and a further five people died in hospital.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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No arrests had been made in either case on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The two mass shootings came days after 11 people were killed in the city of Durban when gunmen stormed a house in the KwaMakhutha township. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Armed security forces were deployed to the scene of a mass shooting in Cape Town on Sunday morning<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Illegal weapons are prevalent in South Africa and gun violence has been a persistent problem for decades, with about 60 murders recorded every day in the country of 62 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But a recent spate of mass shootings has raised fears that the problem is deepening, with violence often linked to turf wars between gangs engaged in drug trafficking and illegal mining.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In February, President Cyril Ramaphosa called organised crime “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier this year, the military was deployed alongside police in areas with the highest murder rates in an effort to reduce armed violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Saturday, a tenth woman’s body was found in Ekurhuleni, to the east of Johannesburg, with local police saying they were unable to rule out a serial killer operating in the area with similarities between the deaths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ck5ywnp075d1o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/ccd0\/live\/83714c70-ba4b-11f1-952f-c5888b744c34.jpg”] Getty Images Gunmen torched vehicles as they fled the scene of a mass shooting at bar near Johannesburg Twenty-eight people have been killed in two mass shootings hours apart in South Africa, the latest gun violence to hit the country. Eighteen people were killed when eight gunmen stormed a bar close to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2167012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2167012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2167012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2167012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2167012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}