Gun violence spikes as police tackle shootings and assassinations

It has been a busy year for the South African Police Service, with numerous shootings and assassinations in the past few months, which have brought firearms under the spotlight again. A man and a woman were arrested at a hostel in Soweto last Monday, in connection with the murder of DJ Warras aka Warrick Stock, which saw one suspect appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court after the case against a second suspect was withdrawn. On Wednesday, a suspect in connection with the Saulsville shooting also appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on a charge of 12 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, while police were still looking for two suspects.

Other serious shootings this past year include the Bekkersdal tavern shooting on 21 December, where nine people were killed, and 10 others were wounded when a group of unidentified gunmen opened fire. Eleven suspects have been arrested in connection with the shooting and are expected to appear in court later this week. Earlier this month, a shooting in Saulsville at an illegal shebeen left 12 people dead, including three minors.

In October, another deadly shooting in Westbury left two teenagers dead and four others aged between 14 and 19 years old injured. In January, the Pienaar tavern shooting in Mpumalanga left eight dead and three injured, while a shooting in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape left six men dead and one woman wounded. High-profile cases include the assassination of Stock on 16 December, and Witness D, aka Marius van der Merwe, a key witness in a corruption inquiry, who was assassinated in front of his family on 5 December, weeks after testifying against a municipal police chief.

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National police commissioner Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola said that gun violence seems to be on the rise and instructed police to intensify their efforts to remove illegal firearms from the streets. “Nationally, we are now sitting at a total of 172 560 suspects arrested from the start of our safer festive operations.

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