The attackers seem to have randomly fired the customers of Soweto bars, near Johannesburg, and Pietermaritzburg, in the east of the country, on the night of Saturday July 9 to Sunday July 10.
Le Monde with AFP
Two shootings occurred in two cities in South Africa, however 500 kilometers, in the evening and the night from Saturday to Sunday. In Soweto, near Johannesburg, fifteen people, two women, were killed by the attackers, who opened fire on the crowd “who had fun”, while in Pietermaritzburg, in the Zulu region of the East From the country, four people were killed by two men who drew random on the attached customers.
The police were called in the night, around midnight and a half, in Soweto, the largest historic Township of Johannesburg, in the southwest of the South African economic capital. “When we arrived on the spot, twelve people had died, bearing ball injuries,” said France-Presse Nonhlanhla Kubheka, commander of the Orlando police station, the Soweto district where the drama took place .
A dozen injured were transported to hospital and three of them died shortly after their arrival, she said at the start of the morning. The victims are young, aged 19 to 35.
of open surveys, not yet arrest
No details were available about attackers. “They arrived and shot on the people who had fun,” describes M me kubheka. “According to witnesses, they fired at random” before going back to a white van, “confirmed Elias Mawela, the regional police chief.
The police did not arrest, but an investigation was opened. A team of the scientific police was still on site at midday to collect all possible clues.
Hundreds of people in the neighborhood were massed behind the judicial police strings. The bodies were taken. In front of the establishment, only a small sign announcing the prices of the beer was visible. Patrier relatives tried to approach but were taken care of by the police.
frequent shootings
In Sweetwaters Township, near Pietermaritzburg, the shooting broke out around 8:30 p.m. in a bar and left four dead and eight injured, confirmed local police spokesperson Nqobile Gwala. “A group of people were drinking glasses in a tavern and a car parked in front of [the establishment],” said Lieutenant-Colonel in a statement. “Two men jumped out of the car, entered the bar and opened fire indiscriminately on customers,” he added.
Twelve people were affected; Two died on site, followed by two other victims in the hospital, details Mr. Gwala. The other eight remain hospitalized. People killed are between 30 and 45 years old; An investigation has also been opened.
According to the mayor, Mzimkhulu Thebola, everything went very quickly. No flight, no conversation or fight. “Each week, we learn that people have been brought down at random,” commented the elected official, dressed in a down jacket in the colors of the ANC, the historic party in power in South Africa. The bar, about twenty kilometers from the center of Pietermaritzburg, is located in a semi-rural area, near a car washing station and an alcohol store.
These facts occur a year after the worst violence known by the country since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy. Triggered, initially, by the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma, sentenced to contempt for justice and prosecuted for serious facts of corruption, these uprisings were part of a tense social and economic climate.
In July 2021, these riots, massive looting and destruction of industrial sites, mainly in Johannesburg and in the province of Kwazulu-Natal, in the east of the country, had left more than 350 dead.