MBABANE:Gunmen have killed at least twelve (12) people, including a three-year-old boy, in a mass shooting at a bar near the South African city of Pretoria,Aljazeera reported on Saturday.
Athlenda Mathe, the Spokesperson pokesperson for the South African Police Service (SAPS), confirmed on Saturday that a total of twenty-five (25)people were shot in the bar in Saulsville township, 18km (11 miles) west of Pretoria, adding that 14 had been taken to hospital.
“Police said three minors were among the dead in the shooting, including the three-year-old, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. The shooting occurred in what Mathe described as an “illegal shebeen” – or bar – within a hostel at about 4:30am (02:30 GMT), with three gunmen indiscriminately firing at a group of men who were drinking. Police were not alerted until about 6am (04:00 GMT). They said a manhunt had been launched and that the motive was as yet unknown. South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised nation, is grappling with entrenched crime and corruption driven by organised networks,” reads the Aljazeera report in part.
South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates [File: Denis Farrell/AP Photo]