The South Africa Police Service (SAPS) are investigating suspected murders in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, where eight people are believed to have been killed in three separate incidents on Wednesday morning.
Authorities confirmed they responded to a shooting incident on Ncumu Street around 06:00, where they discovered the bodies of four males and one female with gunshot wounds.
Preliminary investigations suggest a possible link between these five deaths and two earlier incidents in Feza Street, where an adult male and his girlfriend were shot and killed, followed shortly by another shooting that resulted in the death of a 35-year-old male.
While police have yet to disclose a motive for the killings, they suspect the same individuals may be responsible for all three incidents.
These tragic events spotlight South Africa’s ongoing struggle with gun violence, as evidenced in a report by Gun Free South Africa.
The report shows an average of 31 shooting-related deaths daily in the country with 4.5 million licensed guns.
South Africa’s high murder rate, with a record of about 20,000 murders annually in a population of around 60 million, remains a significant challenge for law enforcement and communities alike.