The year of the bullet — South Africa rocked by mass shootings in 2023

The year began with a mass shooting. 

From there, South Africa’s crime situation developed.

Murders were committed at homes, construction sites and on pavements.

Key arrests were carried out — and some are still pending.

Massacre at a birthday party

The 2023 crime timeline started on an ominous note.

On 29 January, two gunmen entered a home in KwaZakhele in the Eastern Cape. According to a government statement, the gunmen “randomly shot at guests who were attending a birthday party”.

Eight people were killed and three wounded. The mass shooting made news headlines in various countries. Suspects were subsequently arrested.

[Read] Eastern Cape Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Lillian Mene, has commended the arrest of four dangerous suspects in connection with the mass shooting at a birthday party in KwaZakhele, Gqeberha https://t.co/L0CeYpeEUq pic.twitter.com/vJsRNtk6ap

— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) March 29, 2023

Barely two weeks after that, another incident highlighted how brazen violent crime can be, even if the target is a high-profile individual.

AKA’s assassination

Wish On Florida Restaurant where rapper Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA, was murdered along with his friend and former manager, Tebello Motsoane. (Photo: Gallo Images / Darren Stewart)

On 10 February, rapper Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA, was murdered along with his friend and former manager, Tebello Motsoane, outside a restaurant in Durban.

pic.twitter.com/3DONLbS4yX

— AKA (@akaworldwide) February 11, 2023

The killings were caught on camera and footage of the incident spread on social media.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Tributes pour in for SA rapper AKA and his ex-manager after fatal shooting outside Durban restaurant

Recently, Police Minister Bheki Cele said the investigation into the double murder was at an advanced stage.

Six days after the killings in Durban, a shooting in Cape Town shifted the focus to the construction mafia.

On 16 February, a City of Cape Town official, Wendy Kloppers, was gunned down in the suburb of Delft, at the Symphony Way Housing Project building site.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Spate of shootings in Cape Town linked to political, gang and construction mafia elements

Her murder was suspected to be linked to a crime web involving extortionist gangsters trying to dominate construction projects and be awarded related tenders.

Killings and a cleansing ceremony

Police at a home where four people were murdered on 14 March 2022 in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

The following month more violence rocked Cape Town — in March there was a mass shooting in Khayelitsha, in which four men were killed and another five people wounded.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Boko Haram vs Guptas – judgment reveals extensive network around Cape Town extortion gangs

It was not clear what sparked the incident.

In April, there was a massacre in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, in which gunmen killed 10 people after storming a house.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1f6rplmV-I

A police statement said: “During the ambush, 10 members of the same family were fatally wounded. The youngest of the victims was a 13-year-old boy. Hours after the attack at the family home, a police manhunt ensued for the suspects responsible for the deadly shooting.

“Less than two kilometres away, a shootout ensued when police confronted four men participating in a ‘cleansing ceremony’ conducted by a traditional healer.”

At that stage, two suspects were arrested, one escaped and a fourth was killed in a shootout with police.

Hundreds of people attended the memorial service of activist Loyiso Nkohla Mabandla (40) at Mew Way Hall in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on 25 April 2023. Nkohla was shot and killed by gunmen who stormed inside the former Browns Farm police station. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

In yet another shooting in April, activist Loyiso Nkohla was murdered at Philippi in Cape Town while attending a community meeting.

Arrests were made in that case. 

Bulgaria and Constantia connections

Crime scene experts process a multiple murder scene in Constantia, Cape Town on 25 May 2023 where killers targeted Bulgarians Krasimir Kamenov, his wife Gergana and two of their employees. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)

On 25 May, killers targeted Krasimir Kamenov, his wife Gergana and two of their employees. All four were originally from Bulgaria and were shot in the Kamenovs’ home in the upmarket suburb of Constantia in Cape Town.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Constantia killings – Bulgaria’s forewarning to SA and a global billion-dollar crypto scam

Kamenov was wanted in Bulgaria for crimes including murder and extortion. He had been accused of being involved in the killing of a former policeman, Lyubomir Ivanov, who was shot in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, in March 2022.

His name was also mentioned in connection with State Capture-style plots in Bulgaria.

No arrests were made in the Constantia killings and the case is still open.

Gang suspicions

That same month, violence flared again in Cape Town.

Joel Booysen, a son of Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, who faces drug- and murder-related charges in developing court cases, was wounded in a shooting in Green Point.

In a previous court case, Jerome Booysen was alleged to be the head of the Sexy Boys gang, while in a subsequent case, he was accused of Mandrax dealing.

The month after Joel Booysen was shot, other relatives of Jerome Booysen were targeted while in a vehicle on Robert Sobukwe Road, in Cape Town’s northern suburbs, on 9 June.

High-calibre firearms were apparently used in that shooting.

In another part of the country, yet another mass shooting unfolded in June.

This time, eight people were killed while drinking beer in a room in Glebelands, a notorious hostel in Umlazi, south of Durban.

The massacres did not end there.

Drugs and heists

In July, seven people were killed in a mass shooting in Kwanobuhle in the Eastern Cape.

Police said it was suspected the shootings were linked to a drug matter.

The following month, drugs surfaced as a reason behind another shooting.

Three EFF members in Cape Town were fatally shot in Mfuleni after it emerged that they were involved in plans to demolish a drug dealer’s house.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Three EFF members shot dead in Cape Town in alleged hit by suspected drug dealer

Shootings pushed on into September.

At the start of the month, the South African Police Service announced that, at a house in Limpopo, the police had killed 18 suspects who were planning a cash-in-transit heist.

#sapsHQ [READ] Police move in swiftly to foil a cash-in-transit heist, 18 suspected #CIT robbers killed during a shootout with police. 10 Vehicles including several high powered performance vehicles and 7 automatic rifles have been seized.#CITRobberies #TrioCrimes ME… pic.twitter.com/5pkNGXz7Z8

— SA Police Service ?? (@SAPoliceService) September 1, 2023

According to a police statement, “As soon as police approached the address, the group of suspects began shooting, police retaliated. Sixteen males and two females were declared dead at the scene.”

Eyewitness News reported that a nineteenth body was subsequently found at the scene.

In Cape Town, meanwhile, there were major crime-related developments in September.

Detained

During that month, alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson were arrested in Constantia on charges including fraud and vehicle theft.

Their unsuccessful bail application resulted in detailed allegations about gangsterism surfacing.

Stanfield and Johnson had faced accusations relating to other issues, including the running of the entertainment venue Ayepyep Lifestyle Lounge in Cape Town.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘I want to empty a gun in his head’ – chilling affidavit about alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield’s ‘plans’

Ayepyep Cape Town was closed in August after accusations by its former co-owner, Kagiso Setsetse, that Stanfield and Johnson, its general manager, were trying to take it over. 

The venue, now co-owned by Johnson’s mother, Barbara Johnson, reopened in September shortly before the pair was arrested.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Fear, violence and extortion in Cape Town — luxury venue Ayepyep closes amid claims of gangsterism and threats

Months before that, Stanfield’s name surfaced in a fraud and corruption investigation relating to Malusi Booi, who in March was fired from the post of mayoral committee member for human settlements after his City of Cape Town office was raided.

In October, a month after Stanfield and Johnson were taken into custody, Booi resigned as a councillor and said he wanted to get on with his life and clear his name.

Organised crime continued in Cape Town.

Targeted

On 4 October, Shafiq Naser, originally from Israel, was assassinated while driving in the suburb of Milnerton.

The shooting, which involved a gunman on a motorbike, appeared to have been carefully planned.

Naser was involved in the construction, luxury vehicle and property industries in Cape Town.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Motorist slain in Cape Town reportedly related to gunman killed outside city restaurant last year

It was not clear why Naser was shot, although it turned out he may have been the cousin of Abdel Fattah Nassar, who was shot dead in Cape Town in October 2022.

Nassar was killed after he had fired shots outside a venue in Granger Bay and was fatally wounded when security returned fire.

Violence pressed on into November.

In Cape Town, it looped back to Stanfield, whose cousin Noor Stanfield Stephanus (or simply Noor Stephanus) was killed in a shooting in the suburb of Valhalla Park on 4 November.

Parts of Valhalla Park are strongholds of the 28s gang.

Firing lines

Another shooting rocked Cape Town in December.

Lulama Dinginto, the deputy chairperson of the Gugulethu Community Policing Forum, was murdered in her home during the early hours of 10 December.

A suspect was arrested.

Barely a week later, nine people were murdered on the evening of 16 December in Boitekong outside Rustenburg.

A police statement said: “According to information available at this stage, a group of mainly Xhosa-speaking individuals were sitting in a yard drinking liquor when an unconfirmed number of Sesotho-speaking suspects opened fire on them.

“The motive is yet to be determined and no one has been arrested at this stage. Investigations into the matter continue.”

Eight people died at the scene and a ninth died in hospital.

While all these violent incidents are simply a snapshot of crime in South Africa, it means a massacre in January marked the start of the year, several other mass shootings and targeted killings happened during the year, and another mass shooting marked the end of it. DM