Cyril Ramaphosa urges swift action after 19 killed in tavern attacks

Security agencies and communities must work together to urgently bring the perpetrators of two tavern attacks over the weekend to book, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

Ramaphosa expressed his condolences to the families of the 15 people shot dead in a Soweto tavern on Sunday morning and four people murdered in a Pietermaritzburg tavern on Saturday night.

He also wished the injured survivors a speedy recovery.

“As a nation, we cannot allow violent criminals to terrorise us in this way, regardless of where such incidents may occur.”

He said the government, citizens and structures of civil society must work together to improve social and economic conditions in communities, reduce violent crime and stamp out the illicit circulation of firearms.

“Every single violent death is unacceptable and worrying, and killings on the scale we have seen in Soweto, Pietermaritzburg and previously Khayelitsha must spur us into a collective effort to build communities and make SA an unsafe place for criminals.”

TimesLIVE