S. Africa rocked by mass shootings

South Africa recorded shootings at three taverns in different locations resulting in several deaths and injury on Saturday evening and early Sunday morning.

In Johannesburg's Soweto township of Orlando East on Sunday, a minibus parked next to the tavern unloaded people who started randomly shooting. A total of 23 people were in the crossfire and 15 passed away. The police said they recovered cartridges which showed the shooters used high-caliber rifles like the AK 47.

In Johannesburg's Katlehong township, a gunman shot six people on Saturday night, killing two. On Saturday night, gunmen entered a tavern and shot 12 people in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province, killing four.

"The team will be working around the clock to track down and bring to justice those responsible for this shooting," said Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, provincial commissioner of KwaZulu-Natal.

The police appealed to the public to help with information which would assist in arresting the culprits. The motive of the shooters is unknown, and no arrests have been made. President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed the sentiments, urging community members to work with the police.

He said, "As government, citizens and structures of civil society we must all work together to improve social and economic conditions in communities, reduce violent crime and stamp out the illicit circulation of firearms. As a nation, we cannot allow violent criminals to terrorize us in this way, regardless of where such incidents may occur."

South Africa has a high crime rate, with police statistics showing 67 people are killed every day on average. There are many illegal firearms in circulation in the country. A few days ago, police destroyed 20,590 firearms which were used to commit crimes, and the cases have been closed. Some were surrendered to the police by the families of the gun owner after death, while some were seized by the police during operations. The firearms were subjected to high temperatures to render them inoperable, with police saying they want to make sure they are not used to commit crimes again.

"A total of 20,590 of the firearms were destroyed, 15,465 of those destroyed were handguns while 2,686 were rifles, 1,855 were shotguns and the rest were firearm parts. In March this year, 26,002 were also destroyed, bringing the total number of firearms and firearm parts destroyed to 46,592," police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.

She said all firearms were sent to ballistics testing to check if they had not been used to commit crime. The South African police gave amnesty from prosecution to people to surrender their unwanted and illegal firearms from December 2019 to January 2021. Some of the firearms which were destroyed were surrendered during the amnesty, Mathe said. A total of 40,729 firearms and 199,573 rounds of ammunition were voluntarily surrendered during this period, and Mathe said police are determined to ensure "illegal firearms are permanently removed from circulation".

"The police will continue to intensify its operations to detect and remove illegal firearms and ammunition from the streets of South Africa, as they pose a threat to the safety and security of the inhabitants of this country," Mathe added. "The organization therefore takes this opportunity to commend members of the public for playing a part in making South Africa a safer place to live. The service remains confident destroying these firearms will ensure they are permanently removed from circulation."