South Africa Mass Shooting at Unlicensed Bar Leaves 11 Dead, Including Three Children

At least 11 people — among them three children aged 3, 12 and 16 — were killed in a mass shooting at an unlicensed bar near South Africa’s administrative capital Pretoria early Saturday, police said. Fourteen others were wounded and taken to hospital.

According to the South African Police Service, the attack occurred inside a bar operating in a hostel in the Saulsville township, west of Pretoria. Ten victims died at the scene, while the 11th succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Police said they are searching for three male suspects. “We are told that at least three unknown gunmen entered this hostel where a group of people were drinking and they started randomly shooting,” police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe told national broadcaster SABC. She said the motive remains unclear. The shootings took place around 4:15 a.m., but authorities were only alerted at 6 a.m.

South Africa continues to grapple with rampant gun violence. The country recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of over 70 per day — with illegal firearms driving much of the bloodshed. Despite strict gun ownership laws, police say many killings involve unlicensed weapons.

Mass shootings at bars — often known as shebeens or taverns — have become a recurring tragedy. In 2022, 16 people were killed in a Soweto tavern shooting, while four others died in a separate bar attack on the same day in another province.

Mathe noted that shootings at illegal drinking establishments have become a major policing challenge. Between April and September this year, authorities shut down more than 11,000 unlicensed taverns and arrested over 18,000 people linked to illegal liquor sales.

But the surge in mass killings extends beyond bars. In September last year, 18 people — including 15 women — were shot dead in two nearby houses in rural Eastern Cape. Seven men were later arrested and charged, and police recovered three AK-style rifles believed to have been used in those attacks.