Police said the suspects arrested were found with unlicensed firearms, including four handguns and an AK-47 rifle.
Published On 25 Dec 2025
Police in South Africa say they have arrested 11 people, including many suspected of being undocumented miners, in connection with Sunday’s shooting at a tavern that killed 10 people.
Nine citizens of Lesotho and one Mozambican were among those arrested on Wednesday after police and security stormed two houses outside Johannesburg.
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Ten others were wounded in Sunday’s shooting in which about a dozen gunmen in a minibus and a car targeted a tavern in the township of Bekkersdal. There have been several mass shootings at bars – sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa – in recent years.
Police said the suspects arrested were found with unlicensed firearms, including four handguns and an AK-47 rifle.
Fred Kekana, acting provincial commissioner of Gauteng, told reporters that police had found cartridges and live ammunition of the “same type” of firearms at the shooting scene in Bekkersdal. They were sent for testing to determine if they were used in the shooting.
Authorities also arrested a South African mine employee who faces charges related to harbouring undocumented tenants and obstructing justice.
On Tuesday, the pub’s owner, Nonesi Matwa, was charged with fraud and operating an illegal liquor outlet, according to local media.
The owner’s family told the media that Matwa was being unfairly targeted.
They said that she was not responsible for the violence, stating she was not the one who “pulled the trigger and killed the patrons”.
Surrounded by abandoned mine shafts, townships west of Johannesburg, like Bekkersdal, are notorious for illicit mining operations, which have led to problems including gang violence and the proliferation of illegal firearms.
In areas where the mining industry once thrived, undocumented miners known as “zama-zamas” have continued to operate. The trade is believed to be predominantly controlled by migrants who enter without papers from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
With almost 26,000 homicides in 2024, or more than 70 per day on average, South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in these killings. Although the nation of 62 million people has comparatively stringent gun control laws, officials said many killings are carried out using illegal firearms.
