Gunmen opened fire at a bar in Wedela at around 9:30 p.m. local time Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, killing 18 people and wounding at least 15. Wedela is a semi-rural township in the Carletonville area, southwest of Johannesburg. Police have launched a manhunt for eight gunmen.
South African police have updated the charges in the mass shooting at the bar to 18 counts of murder, 18 counts of attempted murder, two counts of malicious damage to property and armed robbery, according to a report published Monday, Sept. 28.
Only four of the 18 people killed at the Wedela bar had been identified as of Monday, Sept. 28, police said. Two were South Africans and two were Lesotho nationals.
From the Patio Inside
The gunmen first targeted customers drinking outside the bar, then walked inside and kept shooting, according to police. The attack lasted long enough for the assailants to move from the patio to the interior and back out again.
Police said 17 people were killed at the scene — 13 men and four women — and an 18th victim later died in hospital. The attackers carried AK-47 rifles and pistols, police said.
The attackers set two vehicles alight before fleeing. Forensic officers and army troops were deployed to the bar in the hours after the shooting, and plainclothes officers examined the burnt-out cars left behind.
“They allegedly searched some patrons and took their cellphones before fleeing the scene in two unidentified motor vehicles,” the South African Police Service said, in a report published Sept. 28.
Second Attack Near Cape Town
Hours later, in the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 27, gunmen struck an entertainment venue in a township outside Cape Town, killing 10 people and wounding 11. Five of those victims were declared dead at the scene, and the others died of their injuries on the way to a hospital or after arriving. The two attacks have together left at least 28 dead.
No motive has been given for either shooting. As of Monday, Sept. 28, police had made no arrests in either shooting.
Mining Rivalry Suspected
The Guardian, in a story first published Sept. 27 and updated 09.46 EDT that day, describes the attack as a suspected “illegal goldmining turf war” in its subheading. A separate report published Sept. 28 states the motive was not clear but that the area is gripped by rivalry between gangs involved in illicit mining for gold.
Police are seeking eight suspects in Wedela and an unknown number in the Cape Town-area attack. The two torched vehicles are physical evidence, and the accounts of dozens of wounded survivors will shape what detectives can build. The scale of the Wedela attack alone would have made it one of the deadliest single shootings South Africa has seen this year.
About 60 Murders a Day
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and authorities have struggled for years to contain gang-related gun violence. Illegal weapons are widespread, and roughly 60 murders are recorded every day in a country of 62 million people. The toll is so steady that individual killings rarely register beyond the communities that absorb them. What has changed, and alarmed officials and residents, is the frequency of attacks that kill in double digits, and the recent run of mass shootings has raised fears the problem is deepening.
The violence is often linked to turf wars between gangs involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining, a persistent scourge around the gold belt west of Johannesburg, where disused shafts and informal operations have drawn armed groups. Earlier in 2026, the military was deployed alongside police in the areas with the highest murder rates to try to bring armed violence down. Soldiers were among those posted at the Wedela bar after Saturday’s shooting.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in February 2026, described organized crime as “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development.”
Gunmen also attacked in KwaMakhutha township near Durban on Sept. 22. Three gunmen killed 11 people, including a pregnant woman, at a house party, and a report published Sept. 28 said “at least 11” people were gunned down at a home in KwaMakhutha.