Residents in a South African township fearing for their lives

Residents of the South African township of Wedela said they were living in fear after a tavern shooting at the weekend killed 18 people.

Bullet casings from AK-47 assault rifles on the street in the township are a stark reminder of the violence.

A separate shooting near Cape Town early Sunday morning killed 10 people, drawing condemnations and promises of action from President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Wedela residents said the feuding illegal miners, whom they believed were behind the slayings, were living among them, and that they lived in constant fear of further violence.

Police spokesperson Brenda Muridili acknowledged some communities near Johannesburg “are being terrorised by illegal miners wielding rifles”.

She said police were working with the army to try to disrupt the gangs that control the illicit gold-mining trade and stop violent crime.

A convoy of police and army trucks drove through the area, about 80 km (50 miles) from Johannesburg, in a show of force around midday.

Heavily armed units stood near the crime scene but stayed for less than an hour. Police say eight suspects wanted in connection with the killings are still at large.

Women ran errands and children played in the streets, but when approached, residents looked over their shoulders and lowered their voices.

“We fear even just going to the shop to buy a small thing because you never know. Maybe you can be next,” Nonyameko Bekezulu, 32, whose husband was killed in the attack, told Reuters from her family home a few blocks from the tavern.

Bekezulu was at home with her 4-year-old daughter when the gunshots rang out. She called her husband, but it went to voicemail, so she rushed to the tavern.

“That’s when I found my husband lying there. All I wanted was just to check his pulse, if he’s still breathing or what. But they couldn’t let us inside,” she said, sitting in bed surrounded by close family.

Some residents, who did not want to appear on camera or give their names, said the area around the tavern was a hotspot for the illegal miners.

Heavily armed gangs control the area

The Wedela township is encircled by mines, on the reef surrounding Johannesburg, where more gold has been mined than anywhere else in the world.

Many of the mines have been abandoned by major companies as their reserves have been depleted after more than a century of mining.

Gangs have moved in, sending desperate people underground for months at a time to search for scraps of gold.

Julian Rademeyer, an expert on organised crime, said the Wedela shooting showed how gangs were ready to use violence to exert control over mining areas.

The gangs are believed to either steal or buy weapons from the police, private security companies and legal gun owners, he said.

He added that some military-style weapons like AK-47s have also been smuggled in from neighbouring countries like Namibia and Lesotho.

South Africa’s acting police minister told parliament earlier this year that 154 firearms recently recovered from criminals had been identified as originating from the South African Police Service, while 205 had originated from private security companies.

Police spokesperson Muridili said there had been reports of officers working with illegal miners, when asked whether the gangs source their weapons from the police.

“When we get those reports, SAPS Crime Intelligence, through our counter-intelligence structures, do go to that particular station and conduct investigations,” she told Reuters.

Sithembile Nqulo, 62, a pensioner who used to work for a mining company near Wedela and has formed a local crime-fighting group, said there were two groups who were fighting each other in the area.