DOMINANT ANGLE
Paris is interpreting these two shootings as a sign of structured armed crime, between gangs of illegal gold mining and an abundance of firearms, while the police have announced no arrests.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Eight armed men with AK-47 rifles and pistols killed 17 people (13 men, 4 women) on Saturday, September 26, at around 9:30 p.m. in a bar in the Wedela township, west of Johannesburg, also injuring 15
- 02
In Lwandle, near Cape Town, armed men entered a nightclub at 1:46 a.m. and opened fire on customers, leaving 10 dead and 11 injured
- 03
According to RFI, South Africa records around 60 homicides per day, and Wedela is a former mining town plagued by illegal gold mining criminal networks
ANALYSIS
Paris, September 28, 2026. The French press is detailing hour by hour the two shootings that killed at least 27 people in South Africa in the night of Saturday, September 26, to Sunday, September 27, before President Cyril Ramaphosa promised on Sunday that "levels of crime and violence" would decrease. Le Monde and RFI are reconstructing the first attack: around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, eight armed men with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols approached a bar in the Wedela township, in the mining region of West Rand, west of Johannesburg. They opened fire first on the terrace, then inside, killing 13 men and 4 women and injuring 15 customers. According to the police, "it seems that they searched some customers, taking their cell phones before fleeing in two unidentified cars," which they then set on fire. Four hours later, at 1:46 a.m., a second attack hit a nightclub in the Lwandle township, near Cape Town: armed men "fired on customers," according to the police, killing 10 people and injuring 11. No arrests had been announced on Sunday in either case, and the motive for the two killings remains, according to the police, unknown. The authorities have mobilized a team of detectives and specialized units to track down the eight suspects from Johannesburg. RFI recalls that Wedela is a former mining town plagued by illegal gold mining criminal networks, where the local press described as early as August the fear of residents faced with repeated shootings. RFI's correspondent in Johannesburg situates these violent acts in a country that records around 60 homicides per day and where, according to Le Monde, "legal and illegal" firearms are abundant. These two shootings come five days after another killing that left at least 11 people dead at a party near Durban, and as the police are also investigating, according to Sud Ouest, the discovery of eleven women's bodies in the Ekurhuleni region. Faced with this accumulation, Cyril Ramaphosa stated on Sunday that the security forces had received "clear instructions" to reduce crime, adding: "We cannot be a country where people take up arms and shoot people at random."
