'Planned attack': Protection rackets or miner gangs suspected as motives for tavern massacre

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The rampant gangsterism in the country is suspected to be the reason behind the Soweto tavern massacre at the weekend. Violence prevention expert Gareth Newham believes links to protection rackets may be a plausible motive.

Two other tavern shootings are under investigation by police — in Katlehong in Ekurhuleni, where two people were killed, and Sweetwaters, Pietermaritzburg, where four people were killed and eight wounded. Two suspects have been arrested by KwaZulu-Natal police.

In the Nomzamo informal settlement in Orlando East, Soweto, 23 people were shot inside the Mdlalose tavern. Twelve people were killed on the scene and three died later in hospital. Eight wounded patrons are still recovering in hospital., who said at least 137 spent cartridges were found at the scene of the Nomzamo shooting, described it as a “bloody weekend”. “In Soweto, it was a brutal war in there and quite clear that these murderers wanted to kill as many people as possible.

Newham said: “That is a large number of shots if you are thinking of a tavern, people sitting in the kind of closed business place, drinking. To fire 137 shots in such an area, you are obviously trying to kill as many people as possible or wound them and injure as many as possible ... This is quite a planned attack to try to cause as much damage, injury and death to people as possible.”

 

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Oh so it went from alcohol, to tribalism now its gangsterism. So anything but the reality, ok.

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