JOHANNESBURG - The last weekend of September 2026 has been marred by bloodshed, with 32 people killed in three separate shootings.
This has once again renewed concerns over the growing gun violence in South Africa and access to illegal firearms, which are used in these incidents.
Julian Rademeyer from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GITOC) said the ongoing trend in mass killings observed in the country is closely linked to organised crime.
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This, he said, includes illegal gold mining, extortion, gangs, drug trade, as well as taxi violence.
Adding to that, Rademeyer said, are killers who walk around knowing there are no consequences for their heinous crimes.
“They're operating with almost complete impunity walking into a tavern in the morning with AK-47s and opening fire on a crowd without any care of who is caught up in that gunfire.”
Rademeyer painted a grim picture of the country's murder landscape.
While police statistics show a decline in the murder rate, he said there appears to be an increase in the ferocity and number of the types of incidents in recent months.
According to Rademeyer, a total of 44 people were killed in September in four attacks.
In August, at least 32 were killed in eight attacks, while in July about 27 people were killed in seven attacks.
“A major concern is the violence that comes with these attacks,” he said.
That violence was on full display in Wedela, west of Johannesburg, where a total of 18 people were gunned down after suspects armed with AK-47s opened fire at a tavern on Saturday night.
The same day, but in Mthuma Street, Site C, Khayelitsha, Western Cape, four people were shot and killed.
Another 10 people were killed in a separate shooting in Lwandle, Western Cape, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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Rademeyer said South Africa is awash with illegal firearms, with illegal firearms entering through various channels.
“There are leakages and thefts from state stockpiles, from the police, from SAPS-13 evidence stores, from the SANDF. We've got leakages from the security industry. That's excluding weapons that are in circulation.”
Adding to that is the influx of AK-style weapons, with Rademeyer alleging that some originate from outside the country and are being smuggled into gangs in the Western Cape.
Rademeyer fighting crime will need more boots on the ground backed by stronger crime intelligence.
But this becomes hard when the systems in place are already weak.
“There's a steady ratcheting up of tensions that leads to that kind of explosion of violence and slaughter. And I think that in itself points to the deep issues that we have in South Africa with policing, the lack of police crime intelligence, the levels of corruption within the police service,”