At least 19 people have been killed in two shootings in South Africa, one in a neighborhood in the Johannesburg region and the other in bars in the east of the country, police said today.

In the Soweto massacre in a slum near Johannesburg, 15 people were killed when criminals opened fire on the crowd overnight.

In the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg, in the Zulu district, four people were killed when two people opened fire indiscriminately at a tavern’s customers.

Police said it was too early to draw a conclusion, but noted that the way the two groups worked was similar.

In the tragedy in Soweto, Johannesburg’s largest and historic suburb, police received a call shortly after midnight.

“When we arrived at the scene, 12 people died from gunshot wounds,” said Nonhlanhla Kubheka, the local police commander.

Police reported that 11 injured people were taken to hospital and 3 people were injured.

“They came and shot people who were having fun,” Kubheka, the security commander in the Soweto neighborhood of Orlando, where the tragedy took place, told AFP.

One year after the riots

The police officer added that no arrests have been made so far and an investigation has been launched.

Hundreds of residents gathered behind the police cordon.

The bodies had already been exhumed, and the police took relatives of the devastated victims who tried to approach the bar.

Local police spokesman Nqobile Gwala confirmed that shooting started around 20:30 local time in Pietermaritzburg, with four people killed and eight injured.

“A group of people were drinking in a tavern and a vehicle stopped in front of the venue. Two people got out of the car, entered the bar and opened fire indiscriminately at customers,” he said.

According to police, two people died instantly and two died in hospital. Eight injured continue to be treated at the hospital.

The two events come a year after the most serious wave of violence in South Africa since the end of apartheid and the advent of democracy.

In July 2021, several riots that resulted in the looting and destruction of factories resulted in the deaths of more than 350 people and the detention of thousands amid a wave of Covid-19 infections.