In two separate events, armed intruders opened fire at patrons of bars in South Africa, resulting in the deaths of nineteen individuals. The president of South Africa condemned both of these incidents as “unacceptable and alarming.”
According to the police, 15 individuals, including two women, were slain while they were enjoying a night out in Soweto when gunmen drew up in a minibus taxi and began randomly firing high-calibre firearms at drinkers. The perpetrators were responsible for the deaths.
Two males opened fire on patrons inside a bar in the city of Pietermaritzburg, which is located in the eastern part of the province of KwaZulu-Natal. As a result, four people were murdered and eight others were injured.
In South Africa, which has one of the worst murder rates in the world and where gang violence and alcohol are major contributing factors, shootings are a common occurrence.
But the fact that the weekend killings followed a similar modus operandi has investigators scratching their heads.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, issued a statement in which he stated that “as a nation, we cannot enable violent criminals to terrorize us in this way, regardless of where such tragedies may occur.”
In addition to this, he expressed his sympathies for the lives that were lost in Soweto and Pietermaritzburg due to “similar circumstances.” The violent killings are “unacceptable and disturbing,” he stated.
