• Eyewitness Lonwabo Benze says gunmen arrived in a Toyota Quantum and appeared to join Heritage Day celebrations before opening fire.
• President Cyril Ramaphosa says technology has helped police identify images of eight suspects as the hunt for those responsible continues.
Lonwabo Benze was setting up his table to sell snacks at a Heritage Day celebration when a Toyota Quantum pulled up.
A group of men climbed out and appeared to join the celebrations.
Then the shooting started.
“I had a Heritage Day event and community members came in their numbers. I set up my table to start selling,” Benze told Scrolla.Africa.
“I saw a Toyota Quantum arriving and a group of men coming out of it. They disguised themselves as though they were joining the Heritage Day celebration.”
Benze said the gunmen appeared to know that men would run towards the men’s toilets for safety.
He said the attackers opened fire as people tried to hide.
One person was shot dead outside, he said.
Benze said he heard the attackers speaking in Sotho and saying the people they were looking for were not there.
He said one of the gunmen then said they “might as well kill everyone else”.
Police have not confirmed what the gunmen said or whether specific people were being targeted.
Benze said the attackers took cellphones, clothes, money and alcohol from people at the scene, but did not take the tavern’s alcohol.
He said the gunmen also broke the windows of two cars and threw hot coals inside, setting them alight.
“It was like a movie,” he said.
Benze said Wedela already struggles with illegal mining and crimes such as muggings, but residents are not used to violence on this scale.
He also said two people were shot at the same location almost two months ago.
Police have not confirmed that earlier shooting.
Police said 17 people were killed and 15 others wounded in the latest attack.
Thirteen men and four women died.
The gunmen were armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols, according to police.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said technology had helped police identify images of the eight suspects wanted in connection with the shooting.
He said this had given investigators an important lead in their search for those responsible.
“We do need to bring the levels of criminality down throughout the country as much as possible,” Ramaphosa said.
“We cannot be a country where people just pick up guns and start shooting randomly and making the people of South Africa unsafe.”
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi also visited Carletonville following the shooting.
He said Gauteng was not a “gangster’s paradise” and welcomed the progress made by investigators.
Deputy Gauteng Police Commissioner Fred Kekana said police were hot on the heels of those believed to be responsible.
Lesufi said the evidence gathered within hours of the shooting showed that police were improving their ability to trace suspects.
For Benze, however, the attack has left him worried about something much closer to home.
He depends on selling snacks at community events to make money.
“I look forward to such events because that is where I make my money. But I am scared now,” he said.
What should have been a day of celebration and business for Benze became a night he will never forget.
Pictured above: Eyewitness Lonwabo Benze says gunmen appeared to join a Heritage Day celebration before opening fire at a tavern in Wedela.
Image source: Palesa Matlala.
