Two more killed as mass shootings continue to rock South Africa

Seven teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19 were shot in Westbury, Gauteng, on Tuesday, as mass shootings continue to plague South Africa.

The seven victims were rushed to hospital, where two were declared dead on arrival, while five are receiving medical attention.

“It is reported that the teenagers were approached by four suspects on foot, three carrying sidearms,” a South African Police Service (SAPS) statement said.

“The suspects opened fire on the victims without saying anything and then fled the scene.” The statement added that preliminary reports suggest the incident was gang-related.

This follows a mass shooting in Zithobeni, Bronkhorstspruit, earlier this month, in which five people were killed and another six injured.

In that case, two men allegedly walked into a tavern demanding a licensed firearm from one of the patrons. Witnesses said a shot went off, after which the perpetrators fired randomly into the crowd.

The person carrying the licensed firearm that the shooters were after was shot, and his firearm was taken. He survived and has been charged with the negligent handling of his weapon.

Since the incident, five counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder have been registered by the Provincial Murder and Robbery Unit.

One of the suspects was arrested on 21 October in the same area where the incident occurred, said SAPS spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi.

According to police, the suspect will appear before the Bronkhorstspruit Magistrate’s Court on 23 October on the eleven charges registered earlier in the month.

While briefing the media on Gauteng’s fourth-quarter crime statistics for the 2024/25 year in June, provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Tommy Mthombeni said murders in the province had decreased by 10.8%.

However, he said Gauteng still faced “a challenge with multiple shootings,” adding that most murders in the province were committed in public spaces.

“These multiple murders have contributed 75 dockets with 191 victims to the province’s murder rate,” he said.

Mthombeni referred to two incidents where seven victims were murdered at the same crime scene — the highest number of fatalities per incident recorded during the year.

The first took place in the Marry Me informal settlement, where quarrelling between community members resulted in patrollers being stoned, shot at, and partially burned.

Three of the accused have been arrested and “are facing the full might of the law.”

The second incident occurred in Kagiso, where a group of suspects torched four vehicles, a shack, and a spaza shop, and randomly shot at people.

Following a cordon-and-search operation, police arrested 19 suspects on various charges, including possession of unlicensed firearms, drug dealing, and murder.

According to Gauteng police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili, most mass shootings in the province are not believed to be gang-related.

Rather Mthombeni says that murders tend to be caused by arguments, misunderstandings, and road rage, provocation.

Gauteng not alone

South Africa has experienced a sharp rise in mass shootings in recent years, defined by police as incidents where three or more people are shot.

Gauteng has not been the only province rocked by mass shootings.

Hotspots include the Cape Flats in the Western Cape, Johannesburg’s townships, rural villages in the Eastern Cape, and communities around Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Official figures show more than 26,000 murders in 2024, a significant share involving firearms.

Notable incidents reported in 2024 and 2025 include:

In September 2024, gunmen attacked two neighbouring homesteads in Ngobozana village, near Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, during a family gathering. The victims were primarily women and children.

Eighteen people were killed, including 15 women, two men, and a teenage boy.

On 16 May 2025, eight people were shot dead in a small house in a southeastern KwaZulu-Natal township, amid a wave of gang-related gun violence.

On the same day, another attack in a Durban tavern left eight customers dead. Police launched a manhunt, marking the latest in a series of tavern shootings in the region.

In the Western Cape, an incident in Gugulethu left seven people dead, and another in late August in which four people were shot in Philippi East.

Police say many of these murders are linked to gang conflict and the prevalence of illegal weapons.

It was also reported that 63 child murders took place in a five-month period in the Western Cape, with gang violence cited as the cause of many of the killings.

Areas most affected include Kraaifontein (11.1%), Philippi East (7.9%), Delft (6.3%), Nyanga (6.3%), and Mfuleni (6.3%) — all within the City of Cape Town’s jurisdiction.

As a result, residents in gang-affected areas have blamed police for losing touch with the severity of violence in their communities, calling on Western Cape Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile to resign.

“I think the provincial commissioner has lost touch with the reality of what’s happening on the ground,” Cape Flats Safety Forum chairperson Abie Isaacs told EWN in September.

“Therefore, as the Cape Flats Safety Forum, we’re aligning ourselves with other formations calling for the provincial commissioner of the Western Cape to resign.”