Random shootings kill 19 in nightclub attacks
JOHANNESBURG: Nineteen people are dead after armed assailants randomly shot at patrons in two bars in South Africa in separate incidents denounced by the President as “unacceptable and worrying”.
In Soweto, 15 people were killed as they enjoyed a night out when assailants pulled up in a minibus taxi and began randomly firing high-calibre guns at drinkers, police said.
In the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZuluNatal province, four people were killed and eight wounded in a bar when two men fired indiscriminately at customers.
Shootings are common in South Africa, a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates, fuelled by gang violence and alcohol.
But the similar modus operandi in the weekend killings has left investigators puzzled. “As a nation, we cannot allow violent criminals to terrorise us in this way, regardless of where such incidents may occur,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.
The violent deaths are “unacceptable and worrying” he added, offering condolences for the lives lost under “similar circumstances” in Soweto and Pietermaritzburg.
In Soweto, Johannesburg’s largest township to the southwest of South Africa’s economic capital, police were called to the scene shortly after midnight.
On arrival they found “12 people were dead with gunshot wounds,” police officer Nonhlanhla Kubheka said.
Eleven people were taken to hospital, and three later succumbed to their wounds. The dead were aged between 19 and 35, provincial police chief Elias Mawela said, adding: “According to witnesses, they shot randomly.
No arrests have been made yet and there were no details regarding the assailants.
“They came and shot at people who were having fun,” said Mr Kubheka, commander of the Orlando police station, the Soweto district where the shooting took place.
In Pietermaritzburg, four people aged between 30 and 45 were killed and eight wounded on Saturday night, police spokeswoman Nqobile Gwala said.
Two men drove up, entered the bar and “fired random shots at the patrons”, before fleeing, Ms Gwala said.
Local mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said the assault was over very quickly.
“Every week we get news of people that have just been shot at randomly,” Mr Thebolla said.