
South Africa bar shooting leaves five dead; gunmen wanted by police
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
The attackers burst into a bar and killed five customers, wounding three others. Photo / 123rf
South African police said they were hunting for attackers who burst into a bar in a township outside the capital and killed five customers and wounded three others.
The attack at approximately 10.30pm Friday local time (8.30am Saturday NZT) is the latest mass shooting in the crime-ridden country, where murders average over 75 a day.
About 10 gunmen raided the tavern in Olievenhoutbosch, around 25km south of Pretoria, and 'started shooting randomly without saying a word', police said.
Three men and two women were killed.
'The motive for the shooting is unknown at this stage,' police said in a statement.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

RNZ News
15 hours ago
- RNZ News
Unexplained discovery of dead stoat on Stewart Island sparks investigation
File photo. Photo: 123RF The Department of Conservation is investigating the unexplained discovery of a dead stoat on Stewart Island. Rakiura is known to be stoat-free with the nearest population 30 kilometres away across the Foveaux Strait. The dead stoat was found on the Rakiura Great Walk Track earlier this month with its skull crushed either from a trap or similar blunt force. The department's Southern South Island Director of Operations, Aaron Fleming, said a stoat's swimming range was two kilometres and they were not known to stowaway on boats. "This stoat has died from a head injury then mysteriously turned up on a busy walking track," Fleming said. "We need to know if we are dealing with a new significant threat to Rakiura's native species, or if this stoat has been transported from elsewhere and planted deliberately. "Both scenarios are disturbing. We are taking this seriously." Genetic testing was underway to try to work out where the stoat had come from. The department is asking anyone with information to come forward. Fleming said stoats would have devastating impacts on the native wildlife if they established a population on Rakiura, threatening the efforts to create a predator-free space for kākāpō to be returned. "In other places in New Zealand where there are stoats, kiwi chick survival can be as low as zero without sustained pest control," he said. "Imagine the damage stoats could do on Rakiura, which is known for its tokoeka or southern brown kiwi population." A predator free project is working to eradicate all of the island's existing pest species, which include rats, possums, feral cats and hedgehogs. Introducing pests including stoats is illegal and penalties include up to five years imprisonment and significant fines. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

RNZ News
17 hours ago
- RNZ News
Police hope new dedicated shoplifting team will bring relief for frustrated retailers
File photo. Photo: 123RF Police say they hope a new team targeting repeat shoplifters in several central and west Auckland suburbs will bring some assurances to frustrated retailers. The team is looking at retail offending in the areas around Mount Roskill, Mount Albert, Avondale, Point Chevalier and Ponsonby. RNZ has reported on Auckland supermarket staff who have been confronted with aggressive and armed shoplifters - including ones who bring in knives and machetes. In recent months, there's been controversy over a police directive to staff saying it will no longer be investigating allegations of shoplifting below $500, which was later canned and criticised by the Police Commissioner as "confusing and unhelpful". Auckland City West Area Prevention Manager, Inspector Wayne Kitcher, told Morning Report that the new initiative has been successful in its first week - where a couple were charged with stealing more than $250,000 worth of goods. "This is a dedicated team that is solely looking at recidivist retail offenders, and I absolutely appreciate that the retailers out there are very are frustrated with how things are going," he said. "And this is our response to hopefully make them feel a bit better, and know that we are actually targeting these people." He said staff on the team would be looking at CCTV footage after reports of shoplifting. Kitcher said usually the offenders would already be known to police and could be tracked down "relatively quickly". When asked by Morning Report whether some officers on this team would be at supermarkets, Kitcher said this team is specifically responding to following up with offending reported. Kitcher was unable to say whether the initiative will be rolled out across wider Auckland or other centres. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Wheelchair-using Northland rapist fails in bid to appeal his sentence
By Ric Stevens, Open Justice reporter of Stephen Robert Wilson statutory release date is in March 2030. Photo: 123RF WARNING: This article deals with the topic of sexual offending and may be distressing for some readers. Three-time convicted rapist Stephen Robert Wilson has used a wheelchair throughout all his years in prison. Now, seven years into his sentence, he has tried to appeal his jail term, arguing that he should have received a lighter sentence because of his disability, which he said was caused by an injury he got in a prison van. The Court of Appeal has turned him down, and in doing so has detailed a history of scepticism from people who have dealt with Wilson about whether his disability is genuine. The Court of Appeal noted that "no physical origin" had been diagnosed for his symptoms, which doctors have suggested might have a psychological cause. The Parole Board has also declined to release Wilson this year, more than halfway through his 12-year, eight-month jail term. His statutory release date is in March 2030. Wilson was found guilty at an October 2018 trial in the Whangārei District Court of raping three women. He appeared before the jury in a wheelchair, saying he had hemiplegia - a paralysis on the right side of his body - caused by a head and spinal injury he received in 2016 when he struck the side of a prison van not long after his arrest that year. Wilson said he only had the use of his left leg and left wrist as his right arm and leg, and his upper left arm, were paralysed. He also needed to wear adult diapers. After the onset of his condition, Wilson spent about 10 months in hospital and then a rest home. He was then in a high-dependency unit at Rimutaka Prison for more than a year before he was granted electronically monitored bail in the lead-up to his trial. He has been in custody since his trial and said his condition made him vulnerable to assaults and bullying from other inmates. Wilson has already tried to appeal his convictions unsuccessfully and sought leave from the Court of Appeal this year to appeal his sentence. Usually, offenders have only 20 working days to appeal against their sentence. However, Wilson sought leave from the court to do so after seven years, arguing he never knew he could challenge his punishment on the grounds of hardship because of a disability. The sentencing judge did not give a discount for hardship and Wilson's lawyer didn't ask for one. The judge said that a probation officer's pre-sentence report had noted that Wilson had "much more mobility than you have shown when you have been in court". In seeking leave to appeal, Wilson allowed his lawyer to say why he did not seek a discount for the disability. "I recall there was always scepticism by the court, the police and the prison towards Mr Wilson's condition," lawyer Wayne McKean told the appeal court. "He did not get a lot of sympathy from prison staff while on remand." Another lawyer, Phillip Osborne, who assisted with the appeal against conviction, said he was not sure what to make of Wilson's condition because he was aware that the Department of Corrections had alleged he did have movement in the right side of his body. Corrections had produced a "movement log" to counter Wilson's assertions, he said. "I had also read psychological reports which suggested that there was no physical cause for his illness," Osborne said. The Court of Appeal justices said that two doctors who assessed Wilson's fitness for trial in 2018 considered he may have a conversion disorder or factitious disorder. A conversion disorder is a psychiatric condition where people experience symptoms without medical cause. A factitious disorder, formerly known as Munchausen syndrome, is a mental health condition where people display physical symptoms, sometimes to gain sympathy. "One of the doctors considered that his presentation at that time may have been driven by distress at his imprisonment and the possibility of secondary gain from his symptoms," the Court of Appeal decision said. "At that stage Mr Wilson was still being tested to exclude a physical origin for his symptoms. "No physical origin for his symptoms has been diagnosed to date." The Court of Appeal declined Wilson's leave to appeal his sentence. The Parole Board declined to release Wilson in April. It said he wanted to be released to the Northland region, where psychological services were limited and no counselling services were available to address his sexual offending. The board said his release proposals could not be progressed because of the risk and the level of care he required. During the Parole Board hearing, Wilson left the room and did not return. The board is due to see him again in August. If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111. This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .