{"id":6321,"date":"2026-01-06T02:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/6321\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T02:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T02:59:24","slug":"manhunt-under-way-after-gunmen-kill-nine-near-south-africas-johannesburg-gun-violence-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/6321\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhunt under way after gunmen kill nine near South Africa\u2019s Johannesburg | Gun Violence News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motive unknown after about a dozen gunmen in minibus and car target tavern in Bekkersdal township, police say.<\/p>\n

At least nine people have been killed and 10 wounded when armed men opened fire at a tavern in a township near the city of Johannesburg in South Africa, police say, adding that some victims were \u201crandomly shot in the streets\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday, the police said a manhunt by Gauteng Serious and Violent Crime Investigations in collaboration with the Crime Detection Tracing Unit is under way for those involved in the shooting, which took place in the Bekkersdal township just before 1am on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday).<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is reported that about 12 unknown suspects in a white kombi [a minibus] and a silver sedan opened fire at tavern patrons and continued to shoot randomly as they fled the scene,\u201d the police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tavern is licensed,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the wounded were taken to hospital.<\/p>\n

There have been several mass shootings at bars \u2013 sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa \u2013 in recent years, including a mass shooting carried out by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital Pretoria that\u00a0killed at least 12 people<\/a>, including a three-year-old, early this month.<\/p>\n

The South African public broadcaster SABC reported that the unknown attackers in Sunday\u2019s shooting opened fire on patrons of the tavern and people in the streets outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still busy obtaining statements. Our national crime and management team has arrived,\u201d Fred Kekana, acting police commissioner of Gauteng, told the SABC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe provincial crime scene management team has arrived, and a team from the local criminal record centre is here. So is our serious crime investigating team, crime intelligence and the provincial crime detective team is on scene,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Kekana also said a driver with a ride-hailing service who was outside the bar is among those killed. A motive for the attack was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n

Kekana said the attackers searched people after shooting them, taking their valuables, including phones. He said three people were killed inside the bar while others were shot as they tried to flee as the gunmen continued to fire as they left the scene.<\/p>\n

Some media reports initially put the death toll at 10 but later revised it to nine.<\/p>\n

According to Imraan Buccus, a political and socioeconomic analyst, deadly crime rises during the yearend holiday season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s often an increase in alcohol consumption during the festive period, and this is correlated with spikes in violence,\u201d Buccus told Al Jazeera, speaking from Durban.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, policing in working class areas is \u201cnot great\u201d, Buccus said, adding that the police force is riddled with corruption and is underfunded.<\/p>\n

High levels of violence happen in the urban centres of the country, including Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, he said.<\/p>\n

With almost 26,000 homicides in 2024, or more than 70 per day on average, South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in these killings. Although the nation of 62 million people has comparatively stringent gun control laws, officials said many killings are carried out using illegal firearms.<\/p>\n

Buccus said the country has experienced a general surge in violence since 2012 in the immediate aftermath of the Marikana massacre, in which 34 striking miners were killed.<\/p>\n

Much of the violence at that time was by police against protesters, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence is not incidental to the post-apartheid state in South Africa. \u2026 It [is] central to it. It starts to permeate the daily lives of just so many people,\u201d Buccus told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motive unknown after about a dozen gunmen in minibus and car target tavern in Bekkersdal township, police say.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[63,1363,2803,96,1179,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-6321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-gun-violence","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-police","13":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}