Gunmen kill 12 near Johannesburg.

South African police reported that gunmen entered an informal settlement near Johannesburg and killed 12 people during the night, marking another tragic shooting in a country already plagued by violence.

The attack occurred before midnight on Tuesday in a low‑income area of metal shacks that is adjacent to a site where illegal miners work, according to police.

Police said that roughly ten assailants were driven to the Jumpers settlement and dropped off before storming the area.

“The suspects allegedly entered the informal settlement through both entrances and moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle,” a police spokeswoman explained.

Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi added that preliminary investigations have confirmed 12 deaths. “Eight adult males and three adult females were declared dead at the scene,” she said, noting that one victim later died in hospital.

– Illegal mining –

South Africa is saturated with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are often driven by gang rivalry or competition among informal businesses.

The incident took place about six kilometres east of Johannesburg’s city centre, near an abandoned gold mine.

Police have not yet identified a motive and no arrests have been made, although there are suspicions that the attack may be linked to competition over illegal mining in the area.

“At this stage, we could not determine what is the motive,” provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni told reporters at the scene. “As you know, this area is adjacent to the illegal mining area. We are having those suspicions.” He added that the incident was “insane, heartless and, to an extent, barbaric.”

Mthombeni said police had swept the area three weeks earlier, confiscating guns and ammunition for AK‑47 rifles and arresting three individuals.

Police did not disclose the identities of the victims, but a resident told the eNCA broadcaster that some of the settlement’s inhabitants are from Lesotho.

Investigators were seen removing equipment believed to be linked to illegal mining operations.

Illegal mining in South Africa attracts people from across southern Africa and has been associated with organised crime, assassinations, extortion and other illicit activities.

Clandestine artisanal miners, known locally as zama zamas—meaning “those who try” in Zulu—have become a persistent presence around Johannesburg and its satellite settlements along the gold reef, driven by poverty and unemployment.

In a related mass shooting tied to rivalry between illegal mining gangs, nine people were killed in December when gunmen opened fire at a bar in the impoverished Bekkersdal township southwest of Johannesburg and in another gold‑mining area.

In March, soldiers were deployed to violence hotspots in Johannesburg to support police efforts to curb rampant crime, a challenge President Cyril Ramaphosa described as one of the country’s biggest threats.

AFP

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