Twenty-seven individuals lost their lives in two mass shootings that occurred hours apart in South Africa, the most recent outbreak of gun violence to strike the nation.
On Saturday evening, seventeen people were killed and fifteen others injured when eight gunmen raided a bar near Johannesburg.
In a separate incident in the early hours of Sunday, ten people were shot dead outside an entertainment venue in a township close to Cape Town, while eleven more were wounded.
South Africa records one of the world’s highest murder rates and has found it difficult to curb gang-related gun violence in recent years. Police have yet to establish a clear motive for either of the latest attacks.
In Johannesburg, gunmen fired at customers outside the bar, then carried on the attack indoors and set two vehicles alight before escaping.
According to police, thirteen men and four women were killed.
Gauteng Police Commissioner Lt Gen Tommy Mthombeni stated that people from Ethiopia and Lesotho were among those involved in the shooting, though the overwhelming majority were South African.
He added that police believed the shooting was motivated by robbery, since personal belongings had been stolen, but that turf wars between illegal mining groups could not be excluded.
Unauthorized mining in abandoned shafts or on dump sites is an ongoing issue in South Africa, leading to many deaths caused by unsafe conditions. Officials say these miners are generally undocumented migrants who have been recruited by organized crime gangs.
Earlier, deputy provincial police commissioner Maj Gen Fred Kekana said the attack might have been retaliation for an incident last month in which one person was killed and another wounded, according to the news agency AFP.
At the scene, he said police had clear images and, in some cases, names of the suspects.
In Cape Town, five victims died at the scene, and another five later died in hospital.
By Sunday morning, no arrests had been made in either case.
The two mass shootings took place just days after eleven people were killed in the city of Durban when gunmen raided a house in the KwaMakhutha township.
Illegal firearms are widespread in South Africa, and gun violence has been a long-standing problem for decades, with roughly 60 murders recorded each day in a country of 62 million.
However, a recent surge in mass shootings has fuelled concerns that the problem is worsening, with the violence frequently tied to turf wars among gangs involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining.
In February, President Cyril Ramaphosa described organized crime as “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society, and our economic development.”
Earlier this year, the military was sent in alongside police in the areas with the highest murder rates in an attempt to curb armed violence.
On Saturday, the body of a tenth woman was discovered in Ekurhuleni, located east of Johannesburg, and local police stated they could not rule out that a serial killer was at work in the area, given the similarities among the deaths.
