Police in South Africa have launched a manhunt after a gang of 10 armed men opened fire at an informal settlement in Johannesburg, killing 12 people and wounding nine others.
The attackers arrived at the Jumpers informal settlement on the East Rand in a minibus taxi late on Tuesday evening. They moved through the area on foot, firing indiscriminately at residents at multiple locations, before fleeing in the same vehicle.
Investigators are working to establish a motive for the attack. Regional police chief Lieutenant-General Tommy Mthombeni visited the scene and said it was too early to confirm if the massacre was linked to illegal mining, which is rampant in the area.
However, he added that the possibility could not be ruled out. “Some of the victims were where they were lying, it looks like this is a place of a processing centre for illegal mining,” he told reporters.
Residents have told the media they believe the killings are part of an ongoing turf war between rival syndicates of illegal miners—known colloquially as zama zamas—who operate out of abandoned shafts nearby.
The mass shooting has left the community in shock and has once again intensified the national debate surrounding South Africa’s high levels of violent crime and gun proliferation.
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