Mzansi staggered by deadly back-to-back mass shootings, again this year!

South African townships are experiencing back-to-back shootings again this year- an interminable stunt of 2022, where lifeless bodies are lying in the streets, sorrowful statements are issued and outcries falls in deaf ears.

In apparently unrelated acts of mass murder, over 22 people have been killed to date since last Sunday.

In the early hours of today, February 2, at least 10 people were gunned down in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape, just four days apart from another cold-blood attack where gunmen killed eight people in the same province in Gqeberha.

The motive for the two different incidents is still unknown and the police are pursing investigations,” said police spokesperson Tembinkosi Kinana in the province.

“It is not yet established if there could be any links between the two incidents. Murder cases have been registered. No arrests have been made at this stage,” said Kinana.

Eastern Cape police commissioner Nomthetheleli Lillian Mene said these victims were killed by criminals, “And we will not rest until we find out what happened and who was responsible for (this) callous and cold-blooded attack on these unsuspecting victims,” she said.

In another horrific incident yesterday, February 1, a group of 20 heavily armed suspects stormed into a men’s hostel in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal Province where they opened fire on the victims and four people were shot to death.

Also, the police have not yet established the motive of the shooting and the officers are still investigating the circumstances around the incident.

These incident follows a spate of mass gun attacks last year that shocked the nation, where over 1,400 people were killed in random shootings.

The most recent national crime data shows that at least 67 people are murdered in South Africa every day.

Mzansi is one of the world’s most violent countries with 20,000 people murdered every year, one of the highest per-capita murder rates globally.

In 2020, South Africa reported 6,100 murders between July and September, according to official data.

The number of murders were up by 1,056, or 20.7%, to 6,163, the country’s crime statistics showed.

“This data proves again that South Africa is a very violent country,” Police Minister Bheki Cele had said at the time of the release of crime statistics.

He called the soaring figures of crime as “deeply disturbing” and a “disgrace.”