Cape Town – Head of Justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, Gareth Newham, reportedly said that gangsterism and extortion could be the possible motive behind the Soweto tavern.
Newham argued that links to protection rackets were likely motives for the recent tavern massacre, reports said.
Police Minister Bheki Cele on Monday revealed that at least 137 AK-47 and 9 mm bullet cartridges were found at the Soweto tavern where 15 people were murdered during a mass shooting on Sunday.
Newham said that in an instance where a business place was attacked with no robbery intended “one possible motivation has to do with extortion, reported TimesLive.
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“In this case where it’s a place of business and it didn’t seem to be related to any robbery, the shooters just arrived and started shooting randomly, one possible motivation has to do with extortion. What we have seen growing across the country are different groups involved in different kinds of extortion,” the report quoted Newham as saying.
In the past, deaths were often caused by personal quarrels between individuals but there’s been an increase in group killings including vigilantes, politically motivated criminal networks and organised gangs, reported The Guardian.
The report said that military weapons were used in the Soweto tavern massacre and this pointed towards organised criminals.
Newham said that organised criminals needed massive policy response and effective intelligence, the report said.
“There are only a certain number of people doing this, so it should be possible to proactively remove the weapons from society … But police don’t seem to even know what the problem is,” the report quoted Newham as saying.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
