{"id":37142,"date":"2026-09-28T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/?p=37142"},"modified":"2026-09-28T09:03:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:03:00","slug":"death-toll-in-south-africa-bar-shooting-rises-to-18-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/?p=37142","title":{"rendered":"Death toll in South Africa bar shooting rises to 18, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speakup.ai\/?utm_source=speakup_publisher&amp;utm_medium=speakup_tag&amp;utm_campaign=tooltip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speakup.ai\/?utm_source=speakup_publisher&amp;utm_medium=speakup_tag&amp;utm_campaign=tooltip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.accessiway.com\/it\/digital-accessibility-badge\/11202625\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a>South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are common, often fuelled by gang rivalry, extortion and competition between informal businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The death toll from a mass shooting at a South African tavern has risen to 18 after one person died in hospital, police said on Monday, announcing at least two of the dead were Lesotho nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shooting west of Johannesburg late on Saturday was part of a bloody weekend in the crime-weary country, with 10 people killed in another mass shooting in Cape Town on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eight gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed the bar in the semi-rural township of Wedela, around 80 kilometres from central Johannesburg, killing 13 men and four women, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The motive for the attack was not clear but the area is reportedly gripped by rivalry between gangs involved in illicit mining for gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thousands of unregistered miners operate in abandoned mining shafts in South Africa, many coming from across southern Africa, including the kingdom of Lesotho which is within South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sector has been linked to organised crime, assassinations and other illegal activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a separate shooting at the weekend, gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 more at an entertainment venue in a township outside Cape Town early on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are common, often fuelled by gang rivalry, extortion and competition between informal businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The country of around 62 million people has one of the world&#8217;s highest murder rates, with about 60 people killed each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speakup.ai\/?utm_source=speakup_publisher&amp;utm_medium=speakup_tag&amp;utm_campaign=tooltip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speakup.ai\/?utm_source=speakup_publisher&amp;utm_medium=speakup_tag&amp;utm_campaign=tooltip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.accessiway.com\/it\/digital-accessibility-badge\/11202625\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are common, often fuelled by gang rivalry, extortion and competition between informal businesses. The death toll from a mass shooting at a South African tavern has risen to 18 after one person died in hospital, police said on Monday, announcing at least two of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37144,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37142\/revisions\/37144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsreporters.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}