Death toll in South Africa’s latest pub shooting rises to 10

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The death toll in South Africa ’s latest mass shooting at a pub rose to 10 on Tuesday, while police said they had identified two potential suspects.

Three women and seven men were killed in Sunday’s early-morning assault in the township of Bekkersdal, 46 kilometers (28 miles) west of Johannesburg. Nine people remained hospitalized.

Gauteng police spokesperson Col. Mavela Masondo told The Associated Press that the owner will be charged with fraud and operating an illegal liquor outlet. Authorities confiscated all alcohol in the pub.

Maj. Gen. Fred Kekana, acting provincial commissioner of Gauteng, told reporters that two other people have been identified as potential suspects in the shooting based on community reports to the police.

It was the second mass shooting in three weeks at a township pub, which are sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa.

In early December, a mass shooting at an unlicensed bar near the capital, Pretoria, left at least 12 people dead. On Monday, a 32-year-old man was arrested.

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with over 26,000 reported in 2024, or a daily average of over 70. Despite stringent gun ownership rules, firearms are the most common weapons used, and many crimes employ illicit firearms, according to authorities.