JOHANNESBURG: Police in South Africa said on Sunday that two seemingly random shootings at taverns there resulted in the deaths of 19 people, reiterating the country’s grim reputation as a global hub for homicide.
In the early hours of Sunday, gunmen armed with rifles and pistols opened fire in the Orlando East bar in the Soweto township, killing 15 people and injuring nine others, according to police.
Elias Mawela, the provincial police commissioner for Gauteng, claimed that it was clear from the way the bullet casings were scattered that the shooters were acting carelessly.
Sthembiso, 34, and Luyanda, 18, one of Sololo Mjoli’s two sons, were both killed in the attack at the bar in one of Soweto’s less affluent neighbourhoods that is primarily made up of metal sheet shacks.
The 59-year-old gardener expressed his “heartbreak,” adding that Sthemibiso’s girlfriend had found him still breathing when she had arrived on the scene soon after the shooting.
He was then taken to the hospital, where he passed away.
Thobani Mhlabiso, a bar waiter, claimed that he hid behind the refrigerator to escape the attack.
He said, “There was blood all over.”
Four people were killed and eight were injured in a second, seemingly random shooting that occurred hours earlier, at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in a bar in Pietermaritzburg, 500 kilometres southeast of Soweto.
The two shootings, according to the officers, were unrelated. According to police, who noted that it was unclear how many attackers were involved in either shooting, the murderers from both incidents are on the run.
With 20,000 murders per year, South Africa, which has a population of about 60 million, is one of the most violent nations in the world. This country also has one of the highest murder rates per capita in the world.
