South Africa: 27 dead in two nighttime shootings in Cape Town and Johannesburg

Bloody evening in South Africa. Two shootings in nightlife venues in Cape Town and Johannesburg left a total of 27 dead during the night from Saturday to Sunday, according to reports communicated by the police in a country regularly bereaved by violence. Eight men armed with assault rifles killed 17 people on Saturday in a bar in western Johannesburg, also wounding 15.

Elsewhere in a township near Cape Town, ten people were also killed and eleven injured in another shooting. Armed men entered a nightclub in Lwandle at 1:46 a.m. local time (11:46 p.m. GMT) and “shot at customers,” South African police said. In the attack in Johannesburg, “it appears that (the attackers) searched some customers, seizing their mobile phones before fleeing in two unidentified cars,” added the police, who specified that the shooting took place around 9:30 p.m. Thirteen men and four women died in this massacre, it was said.

A country flooded with guns

The motive for the shooting remains unknown, law enforcement said, adding that the suspects set two vehicles on fire before fleeing. Police mobilized a team of detectives and other specialized units to locate and apprehend the suspects. South Africa is awash in legal and illegal firearms, and similar shootings are common, often fueled by gang rivalries and competition in the shadow economy.

This country of around 62 million people has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with nearly 60 people killed every day. In March, soldiers were deployed to Johannesburg's flashpoints to support police efforts against rampant crime, described by President Cyril Ramaphosa as one of the biggest threats facing the country.