The Albany Gazette - Death toll in South Africa bar shooting rises to 18

The shooting west of Johannesburg late 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.

Eight gunmen armed with assault rifles stormed the bar in the semi-rural township of Wedela, around 80 kilometres (50 miles) from central Johannesburg, killing 13 men and four women, police said.

"One more victim has died in hospital, bringing the total number of deceased to 18," they said Monday. Eighteen people were wounded.

"Only four of the deceased have been identified, two South Africans and two Lesotho nationals."

The motive for the attack was not clear, but police said it may have been retaliation for an incident in the same tavern in August when one person was killed and another wounded.

The area was gripped by rivalry between gangs involved in illicit mining for gold, the tavern owner told local journalists at the scene, where bloodied clothes lay on the ground.

"Even if they finish investigating, I am scared to continue selling again. I am too scared," she said, hiding her identity.

Thousands of unregistered miners operate in abandoned mining shafts in South Africa, in a sector linked to organised crime, assassinations and other illegal activities.

Many come from across southern Africa, including the kingdom of Lesotho which is embedded within South Africa.

- Mass killings -

In a separate shooting at the weekend, gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 more at an eating and drinking venue in a township outside Cape Town early on Sunday.

In video clips shared on social media, revellers can be seen dancing and drinking before a burst of gunfire rings out, sending people scrambling for cover.

Police said it was not clear what prompted the attack in Lwandle, but one official said it may have been business rivalry.

There had been no arrests in either of the mass killings.

South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms and shootings are common. The country of around 62 million people has one of the world's highest murder rates, with about 60 people killed each day.

There have been at least 41 mass killings this year at the cost of 196 lives, said Julian Rademeyer, an adviser for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC).

"Very often these are killings that are linked to organised crime" including illegal mining, gang violence and extortion, he told the Newzroom Afrika broadcaster.

In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the army to violence hotspots around Johannesburg and Cape Town after describing organised crime the "most immediate threat" to South Africa's democracy and economic development.

The weekend bloodshed further rattled South Africans already alarmed by the discovery of the bodies of 11 women, one of them on Sunday, in 10 weeks in Johannesburg's Ekurhuleni area.

Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, with some found stripped of their clothes and showing signs of sexual assault, police said.

In the same area, a 23-year-old woman was shot and killed early Monday during an alleged robbery while she was on the way to work, police said.

"Preliminary investigations have not established any link between this incident and the recent cases involving the bodies of women found in Ekurhuleni," they said in a statement.

(B.Smith--TAG)