JOHANNESBURG, South Africa: Police in South Africa were hunting suspects on Sunday after two separate mass shootings killed 27 people within hours.
The motives for the shootings near Johannesburg and Cape Town were not immediately known.
In Wedela township, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Johannesburg, eight gunmen armed with assault rifles and pistols opened fire at a tavern on Saturday night, killing 17 people and wounding 15 others, police said.
The suspects opened fire on customers drinking outside the tavern at about 9:30 pm local time before moving inside and continuing to shoot, police said. The dead included 13 men and four women.
#BREAKING At least 17 people were killed and 15 others seriously wounded in a mass shooting at a tavern in Wedela, near Carletonville, South Africa, on Saturday night.
Police said at least eight suspects armed with AK-47 rifles and handguns opened fire on patrons outside the… pic.twitter.com/KDmy5rZtYo
— Global OSINT (@GlobalOSINTHQ) September 27, 2026
The suspects also set two vehicles on fire before fleeing, police said.
Wedela is a semi-rural township of brick houses and small businesses surrounded by land used for mining.
Provincial police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni said one line of inquiry was that the shooting could have been linked to a “turf war in terms of illegal mining”.
One of Saturday’s victims was also being sought by police in connection with last month’s shooting, deputy provincial police commissioner Major General Fred Kekana said.
The area has been a focus of a government crackdown on illegal mining, with soldiers deployed alongside police to target criminal networks operating around abandoned mine shafts.
“The criminals think it’s a fashion. They want to make it something which we need to get used to, but that cannot be allowed and tolerated,” Kekana said at the scene.
“We managed to get clear pictures of the suspects and we will get them,” he said.
10 Killed Near Cape Town
In a separate attack early on Sunday, gunmen opened fire at a venue selling grilled meat in Lwandle, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, killing 10 people and injuring 11, police said.
The shooting took place at about 2:00 am local time.
Five victims were declared dead at the scene, while the others died while being taken to hospital, police said. Two of those killed were women.
Videos shared on social media showed people dancing and drinking before a burst of gunfire sent them scrambling for cover.
One officer said business rivalry could have been involved, citing reports that people were buying alcohol at cheaper outlets and bringing it to the venue to drink.
No suspects had been arrested in either shooting, police said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday that security forces would continue “pulling out all stops” to combat criminality.
“The clear instruction to our security forces is that we must bring the levels of criminality and violence down,” he said.
“We cannot be a country where people just pick up guns and start shooting at people at random.”
Ramaphosa said earlier this year that organised crime had become the biggest threat to South Africa’s democracy. He has repeatedly deployed the military to support police operations in areas affected by violent crime.
In March, soldiers were deployed to crime hotspots in Johannesburg.
The military has also been used during periods of unrest, including the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020.
In 2019, about 1,300 soldiers were deployed to support police in gang-affected areas of the Cape Flats around Cape Town.
