South African police said 28 people were killed in two separate shootings within hours of each other, and they were hunting the perpetrators who attacked patrons at a tavern west of Johannesburg and at an entertainment venue east of Cape Town.
Officials were still establishing the motives for the shootings near Johannesburg and Cape Town, but initial investigations suggested one could be a turf war between illegal miners and the other a business rivalry.
Gang violence and organized crime remain rife in South Africa, despite government efforts to curb one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, including by deploying the army in some areas.
In Wedela township, about 80 km from Johannesburg, 18 people were killed and 15 injured at a tavern, the South African Police Service said in a statement posted on X/Twitter.
"Suspects were reportedly armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols," the statement said of the shooting, which occurred around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The motive was unclear, and no arrests had been made, the statement said.
The province's police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni told reporters on the scene that one line of inquiry was that the shooting was a "turf war in terms of illegal mining."
There was a shooting at the same tavern about a month ago, and Saturday's shooting could be retaliation for that, he added.
Gunmen kill ten, wound eleven, in Lwandle shooting
In a separate attack in the township of Lwandle on the outskirts of Cape Town, gunmen opened fire in a venue selling grilled meat around 1:46 a.m. on Sunday, police said.
Five people died at the scene, and another five died of injuries after being transported to medical facilities, while 11 others were receiving medical treatment, police said.
"Detectives are hard at work in search of the perpetrators of the shooting incident with no arrests effected yet," the statement said.
Crime is expected to be a major issue for voters in municipal elections in November, as the African National Congress faces further erosion of voter support.
"South Africa has a serious illegal firearms problem, and firearms are frequently used by organized criminal groups as well as in gang-related and other violent crimes," said crime expert Yusuf Abramjee.
"Every mass shooting should therefore trigger more than an investigation into the immediate perpetrators," he told Reuters. "Authorities need to look at the wider networks behind the violence."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said earlier this year that organized crime had become the biggest threat to South Africa's democracy, and deployed the army to help police in some areas.
A shooting at a house party near Durban last week killed 11 people, while a series of women's bodies found near Johannesburg since July has renewed fear and anger over high rates of femicide.