Urgent call for collaboration to tackle mass shootings in South Africa

Mass shootings have ravaged at least five of South Africa’s nine provinces in 2025, prompting experts to call for an integrated approach by the entire criminal justice cluster and relevant stakeholders to stamp these out.

Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Eastern Cape had mass shootings where four or more people were killed. Also, these provinces have multiple triple murder incidents.

Gauteng

On December 6, 2025, at least 12 people were killed and 13 others injured when three gunmen entered an unlicensed tavern at a migrant workers’ hostel in Saulsville, west of Pretoria. The victims included children aged 3, 12, and 16.

On Tuesday, a suspect linked to the Saulsville matter appeared before the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court on a charge of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. On Wednesday, he will appear again in  Atteridgeville, where he is facing 12 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder.

In a separate incident, nine people were killed, and 10 were wounded at the KwaNoxolo tavern in Bekkersdal, west of Johannesburg, on December 21, 2025. Police later arrested 11 suspects, several of whom were linked to illegal mining.

Western Cape

On June 6, 2025, in what police identified as taxi-related violence, gunmen opened fire at the old taxi rank in Mfuleni, killing four people and leaving three others seriously injured.

Seven men were killed in a single mass shooting event at Kanana Informal Settlement in Gugulethu, on June 28, 2025. 

Five people died, and seven were wounded in one day, following a series of gang-related attacks across several parts of Mitchells Plain.

At a barbershop in Bishop Lavis, in August 2025, gunmen opened fire and killed four people, including three children under the age of 13.

On October 17, 2025, seven young men aged between 20 and 30 were gunned down on Road R53 in the Cape Flats. Authorities linked the motives to local turf wars.

KwaZulu-Natal

On May 16, 2025, eight people were shot and killed at the Zama informal settlement in Umlazi, south of Durban. 

A shooting at a tavern in Mandeni, north of Durban, resulted in four deaths, including two off-duty police officers, on February 4, 2025.

Mpumalanga

On January 11, 2025, gunmen opened fire outside a tavern in Pienaar, near Nelspruit, killing eight people. Six people died at the scene, and two in the hospital — six men and two women. A 39-year-old suspect was later arrested in connection with the attack.

Eastern Cape

In September 2025, gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a tavern in New Brighton, Gqeberha, leaving four people and several others wounded. This incident sparked renewed calls for stricter regulation of social hubs in high-crime townships.

The province also experienced multiple triple murder shooting incidents, where Community Policing Forum members were targeted, others related to taxi violence, while some were characterised as gang-related.

Dr Johan Burger, an independent policing expert, said curbing mass shootings required an integrated approach.

“The police, the entire criminal justice cluster, and key partners with a role to play or an interest, such as the Business Against Crime, have to work together strategically, in reducing the mass shootings and have a preventative strategy, and ultimately eliminate them,” Burger said.

He added that the police must fully analyse these incidents to determine the causal factors in these crimes, the perpetrators - who they are, where they come from, and the availability of firearms - before bringing in the partners.

Burger stated that some of the mass shootings appear to be some form of competition, similar to what has been seen in the taxi industry, illegal mining, among others.

gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za