{"id":225754,"date":"2026-09-27T18:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/two-mass-shootings-in-south-africa-leave-27-dead-bbc\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T18:32:23","slug":"two-mass-shootings-in-south-africa-leave-27-dead-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/two-mass-shootings-in-south-africa-leave-27-dead-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Two mass shootings in South Africa leave 27 dead &#8211; BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-seven people have been killed in two mass shootings hours apart in South Africa, the latest gun violence to hit the country.<br \/>Seventeen people were killed when eight gunmen stormed a bar close to Johannesburg on Saturday evening, with 15 more injured.<br \/>In a separate shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning, 10 people were killed outside an entertainment venue in a township near Cape Town and a further 11 were injured.<br \/>South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world and has struggled to contain gang-related gun violence in recent years. Police have not given a definitive motive for either of the latest attacks.<br \/>In Johannesburg, gunmen opened fire on customers outside the bar before continuing the attack inside and torching two vehicles before fleeing.<br \/>Police said thirteen men and four women were killed.<br \/>Gauteng Police Commissioner Lt Gen Tommy Mthombeni said people from Ethiopia and Lesotho were among those caught up in the shooting, but that the vast majority were South African.<br \/>He also said police believed the motive behind the shooting was robbery, as personal belongings had been taken, but that they could not rule out turf wars between illegal mining groups.<br \/>Mining without permission in abandoned shafts or dump sites is a persistent problem in South Africa, causing numerous deaths from unsafe conditions. Authorities say the miners are typically undocumented migrants recruited by organised crime gangs.<br \/>Earlier, deputy provincial police commissioner Maj Gen Fred Kekana said the attack may have been a retaliation for an incident last month, in which one person was killed and another wounded, according to news agency AFP.<br \/>He said at the scene that police had clear pictures and in some cases names for the suspects. <br \/>In Cape Town, five victims died at the scene and a further five people died in hospital.<br \/>No arrests had been made in either case on Sunday morning.<br \/>The two mass shootings came <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/crgjqxzl097eo\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\">days after 11 people were killed in the city of Durban<\/a> when gunmen stormed a house in the KwaMakhutha township. <br \/>Illegal weapons are prevalent in South Africa and gun violence has been a persistent problem for decades, with about 60 murders recorded every day in the country of 62 million.<br \/>But a recent spate of mass shootings has raised fears that the problem is deepening, with violence often linked to turf wars between gangs engaged in drug trafficking and illegal mining.<br \/>In February, President Cyril Ramaphosa called organised crime &quot;the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development&quot;.<br \/>Earlier this year, the <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cx2e78yk09no\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\">military was deployed alongside police in areas with the highest murder rates<\/a> in an effort to reduce armed violence.<br \/>On Saturday, <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c3vgyyj8q807o\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\">a tenth woman&#x27;s body was found in Ekurhuleni<\/a>, to the east of Johannesburg, with local police saying they were unable to rule out a serial killer operating in the area with similarities between the deaths.<br \/>Exploring the issues behind the escalation of tensions between the TPLF and the national army.<br \/>The pipeline would strengthen energy security in landlocked Ethiopia, while creating jobs at Djibouti&#x27;s port.<br \/>Const Jeff Smith, who was critically injured in the incident, continued to fend off the attacker after being shot multiple times, police said.<br \/>The military says its soldiers inflicted casualties as fears grow of a resumption of a full-blown civil war.<br \/>Mawer had worked for construction firm RA International in the African country for 18 months.<br \/>Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/editorialguidelines\/guidance\/links-and-feeds\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\"><b id=\"read-about-our-approach-to-external-linking.\" class=\"TextFragment-styles__TextFragmentStyled-sc-99e7c69b-0 fa-DACi\">Read about our approach to external linking.<\/b><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiW0FVX3lxTE1OcFRmTXRXMWwwbU1EajhqRUl1SXdfLWtsa0pXTzU4bTBOY21jVHp6Ui1PRUU5TmlVQmNPVDZkWC1wOFFBS1o5azZZdE9yT1RLbjctRXZJMmN6UzQ?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-seven people have been killed in two mass shootings hours apart in South Africa, the latest gun violence to hit the country.Seventeen people were killed when eight gunmen stormed a bar close to Johannesburg on Saturday evening, with 15 more injured.In a separate shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning, 10 people were killed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}