Tavern killings show post-Covid-19 change to group murder patterns

The tavern killings in townships in three major provinces leaving 22 people dead at the weekend dead will have dire consequences for the township economy, which is crucial to the economic prosperity of the country.  

Experts have warned that the massacre in Soweto points to the workings of a highly skilled and organised syndicate with easy access to high-calibre weapons. Police have confirmed that the motives for the attacks were “an intention to kill” and that high-level investigators have been deployed to find the suspects.

Police minister Bheki Cele said the spate of shootings at the weekend does not appear to have been co-ordinated. Speaking to residents in Soweto, he said: “There is that thing [allegations] that it could have been a co-ordinated weekend. We don’t have that information as police. We had separate issues, especially the Pietermaritzburg one, Nomzamo one and the Katlehong one. They happened in shebeens, but we believe that they coincided rather than [were] co-ordinated.” 

Nor did the shootings, which claimed at least 21 lives, seem to be acts of terrorism, he said. “We don’t believe it’s terrorism. It is a criminality that is brutal. It is a criminality that is violent. Terrorism is a very high level of criminality. We will need to have some evidence, as the police, to be able to say so, otherwise we will be really speculating on a serious matter.”

In Soweto, gunmen shot dead 15 people at the Nomzamo Tavern in Orlando East leaving 10 others wounded, shortly after midnight on Sunday.

At Duncan Village in East London three youths were killed in the early hours of Sunday morning. The killings came just days after 21 youths who died at Enyobeni tavern in Scenery Park were laid to rest.

In Pietermaritzburg two gunmen entered a tavern and randomly opened fire on patrons, leaving four dead and 12 injured on Saturday evening. Police have since arrested two suspects.

National Minara Chamber of Commerce president Solly Suleman said the actions of organised and other criminals in townships do not augur well for the local economy. “Township economies depend on stability and investor confidence and when this happens the knock-on effect on local businesses in townships and the provincial and national economy as a whole is disastrous.”

Suleman called on Cele to act decisively to curb crime, which has taken over townships and is prevalent in the entire country. “We are one of the most dangerous countries to live in. People are not safe anyway and police must act.

“Places such as taverns should have access control points and police should be patrolling vulnerable areas in our townships. The innocent are dying and families are torn apart at the hands of dangerous criminals allowed to wield power and create fear,” he added.

Independent political analyst Wayne Sussman says the incidents point to a brazen criminal culture that has engulfed the country. “We have just come out of the July 21 national uprisings and we now experienced the death of the 21 youths in East London, this adds to the current phase of hopelessness that is sweeping the country.

“There appears to be a lack of political will and with the myriad challenges facing us, people are demanding answers. There has to be assurance that people are safe. There must be quick and efficient police work and arrests.”

Lizette Lancaster, manager for crime and justice information at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Cape Town, says the tavern shootings are a type of mass shooting that is fairly new and arrests will depend on slick work by law enforcement agencies with well-established crime intelligence networks.

“These types of mass shootings are quite a recent phenomenon. We have seen that in certain rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape there are traditional family feuds that lead to this type of killings.

“However, we are no doubt experiencing a change in the murder patterns with more group type crime taking place as in taxi violence, political and gang violence as well as a rise in vigilantism. Also critical is that the Covid-19 pandemic has seen organised crime syndicates flourish, which adds to the increase in mass murders,” she says.

“While there could be a myriad of reasons behind the attacks at the weekend, from extortion due to gangs demanding paybacks, through to hired killings by competing operators, it is clear that in the Soweto case, the killers had access to high-calibre weapons as police found evidence to that effect by quickly preserving the crime scene and dispatching forensic teams to the scene. It points to an organised syndicate that is highly organised and well-resourced and with the ability to have infiltrated police networks.”

Quick money

Criminologist Guy Lamb said the attacks at the weekend are common to the Western Cape Province. “We have seen in Khayelitsha and Mfuleni the operation of massive extortion rackets to squeeze money from township businesses. Taverns and shebeens are targeted because many operate without a licence and are cash businesses and an easy way to get quick money.”

Sometimes gangs are not paid their protection money so there are retaliatory attacks on businesses that do not pay as a means of shutting them down. In other instances orchestrated hits by criminal syndicates are the nature of the attacks.

Lamb says the criminal justice system is under pressure from syndicates as very few members of communities want to testify against crime kingpins who offer them goodwill, and it is hard to catch them red-handed. It is also due to the lack of resources such as criminal and fingerprint databases to track down criminals who use illegal firearms.

On Monday Amnesty International SA called for thorough police investigations into the killings. “There is a shocking lack of concern for the right to life in SA. This has not only been brought to the fore with these recent shootings, but the latest quarterly crime statistics paint a similar picture,” said executive director Shenilla Mohamed.   

“The state must work to reduce persistently high levels of firearm violence in communities and its long-term socioeconomic impacts by taking measures to ensure a context of public safety supported by effective, human rights compliant and accountable law enforcement agencies which are highly trained and committed to the rule of law and which are charged with the protection of the rights to life and to security of person,” Mohamed said.

With TimesLive