Death toll in South Africa shooting rises to 12 after one victim dies in hospital

The death toll in Saturday’s shooting at an unlicensed bar near South Africa’s capital Pretoria has risen to 12 after one person died in hospital.

Three minors aged 3, 12 and 16 are among the dead.  Thirteen people were wounded.

The early morning shooting at a bar inside a hostel in the Saulville township has once again drawn attention to the country’s unlicensed bars, known locally as Shebeens. 

"These illegal Shebeens are really giving us a problem as the police, because a lot of murders are being reported at these illegal establishments," Athlenda Mathe, a spokesperson for the South Africa Police told reporters. "And between April and and September of this year, we actually shut down throughout the whole country 11,975 of these illegal Shebeens. So that it's quite problematic because also in these mass shootings, it's either they happen at licensed premises or illegal Shebeens. So we are intensifying our operations in terms of our inspections.”

There have been several mass shootings at Shebeens in recent years, including one in 2022 that killed 16 people Johannesburg. On the same day, four others were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.

Recent mass killings in South Africa have not been confined to bars, however. Police said 18 people were killed, 15 of them women, in mass shootings minutes apart at two houses on the same road in a rural part of Eastern Cape province in September last year. Seven men were arrested for those shootings and face multiple charges of murder, while police recovered three AK-style assault rifles they believe were used in the shootings.

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.

And while the country has relatively strict gun ownership laws, authorities say many killings are committed with illegal guns.