Pretoria - South Africa has been left in shock after a bloody weekend that saw more than 20 people shot dead in taverns across the country.
In Gauteng, there was a mass shooting in Orlando, Soweto, 15 patrons were shot dead at Mdlalose’s tavern.
In the East Rand township of Katlehong, two more people were killed during a shooting in a tavern.
In KwaZulu-Natal, four people were mowed down by armed men in Samukelisiwe Tavern in Sweetwaters, Pietermaritzburg.
Twenty-seven people were left wounded in the three separate incidents.
Director of Gun Free South Africa Adele Kirsten said the shootings are shocking but not new because almost 23 people are murdered with guns every day in the country.
“We have a gun violence epidemic in South Africa ... We know the most effective way to reduce the risks for gun deaths is to reduce gun availability. We have guns flooding into the legal market and then they move into the illegal market.
“We must stop movement of guns into our society and the best way to do that is to reduce availability, to restrict access to the types of guns you can have and to the amount of ammunition you can have,” Kirsten said.
Kirsten added that another concern that should be raised is that its young black men who are killed and its young black men who are doing the killing.
“What does this say to us about young black men in our society, is that they are often marginalised and excluded from the economy and yet we are not having this conversation ... Is it because its young black men and we are not as outraged as we should be, we should be outraged by what we see.”
Kirsten said hopefully this is the moment that will turn the tide in the country and government will implement tighter restrictions around the availability of guns.
While there were some reports that the shootings were related to acts of terrorism, Police Minister Bheki Cele said there is no evidence to support the assertion that any of the tavern attacks were acts of terrorism.
“For some reason, we had a bloody weekend in the country. As 15 people were killed here, you know that two people were killed at Katlehong, four people were killed in Pietermaritzburg, two people were killed in Inanda, two young people were killed at Duncan Village. It was just a bloody weekend,” Cele told journalists in Soweto.
He said that even though there are suggestions that the attacks were co-ordinated, there is no information to support the assertion.
“We believe that they (the attacks) coincided rather than being co-ordinated. Do we believe that there is terrorism as it was labelled? We do not believe that it is terrorism. It is criminality that is brutal, violent. Terrorism is a high level of criminality (which is) organised,” said Cele.
Cele said at the moment, everything is just speculation and details will be released when police have gathered enough evidence.
In a new development around the shootings, KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner has confirmed that two people were arrested for the shooting at Samukelisiwe Tavern and Restaurant in Sweetwaters, Pietermaritzburg.
Speaking to eNCA, KZN police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said that during their investigation they brought in people for questioning, which led to arrests and the confiscation of exhibits.
“The two that we got through the investigation are involved in this case,” Mkhwanazi said.
Police reports suggest that the occupants of a VW Polo hatchback with Pietermaritzburg registration plates were seen on CCTV cameras jumping out of the vehicle, entering the Sweetwaters tavern and opening fire immediately. Soon afterwards they got back into their vehicle and drove off.
Six bullet heads, one live round and 16 cartridges, all from a 9mm pistol, were discovered on the scene and form part of the police investigation.
Two people died at the scene and two others died in the hospital while eight others sustained gunshot wounds.
#sapsKZN Acting MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison Jomo Sibiya, PC Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and entourage met at Plessislaer SAPS for a briefing and will proceed to Sweetwaters, Samkelisiwe Tavern where 4 people were killed and 8 sustained injuries on Saturday. ML pic.twitter.com/VCuYXCaFjk
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) July 11, 2022
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