Eight gunmen opened fire at a township bar west of Johannesburg, killing 18 people and wounding at least 15 others, and South African police have launched a manhunt for them. The gunfire erupted at around 9:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Wedela, a semi-rural township in the Carletonville area southwest of the city.
Police said on Monday, Sept. 28, that only four of the 18 people killed in the Wedela tavern shooting had been identified. A police statement described the four as “two South Africans and two Lesotho nationals.”
Gunmen Moved From Patio Inside
According to police, the gunmen first targeted customers drinking outside the bar, then walked inside and kept shooting. “They allegedly searched some patrons,” police said.
The assailants had time to work their way from the patio into the interior, then out onto the patio once more. Police said the attackers carried AK-47 rifles and pistols. Before fleeing, the attackers set two vehicles alight.
Police said 17 people were killed at the scene — 13 men and four women — and that an 18th victim later died in hospital. Forensic officers and army troops arrived at the bar within hours of the gunfire, while officers in plain clothes went over the gutted cars the attackers had abandoned.
Second Attack Near Cape Town
Hours later, gunmen hit an entertainment venue in a township outside Cape Town in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 27, killing 10 people and wounding 11. Five of the victims were declared dead at the scene, while the others died of their injuries on the way to a hospital or after arriving.
The two attacks together have left at least 28 dead. Neither motive has been confirmed.
Police Weigh Illegal Mining Turf War
Police have not confirmed a motive in the Wedela attack. Gauteng police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni said one line of inquiry is a “turf war in terms of illegal mining.” Investigators are also examining possible retaliation for an August shooting at the same tavern.
The owner of the Wedela tavern, speaking to local journalists at the scene while hiding her identity, said gang rivalry over illegal mining operations grips the area. “Even if they finish investigating, I am scared to continue selling again. I am too scared,” she said.
Detectives are seeking eight suspects in Wedela and an unknown number of suspects in the Cape Town-area attack. They have two torched vehicles as physical evidence, along with dozens of wounded survivors whose accounts will shape what detectives can build.
Double-Digit Death Tolls Alarm Officials
Gunmen stormed a house in the KwaMakhutha township near Durban on Sept. 22, killing 12 people, among them a pregnant woman. By its scale, the Wedela attack alone would have made it one of the deadliest single shootings South Africa has seen this year.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and gang-related gun violence has defied the efforts of authorities to contain it for years. Illegal weapons circulate widely in a country of about 63.5 million people, which records roughly 60 murders every day. Individual killings rarely register beyond the communities that absorb them.
Officials and residents have grown alarmed by how often attacks now kill in double digits. The latest string of mass shootings has fed fears that the problem is growing worse.
The violence is often linked to turf wars between gangs involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining. Armed groups have been drawn to the gold belt west of Johannesburg by its disused shafts and informal operations, and illegal mining remains a persistent scourge across that area.
Earlier in 2026, the government deployed the military alongside police in the areas with the highest murder rates, hoping to drive armed violence down. Soldiers took up positions at the Wedela bar after the Sept. 26 shooting, alongside other personnel.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in February 2026, described organized crime as “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development.”