A Nation on Edge: Experts Warn of a “Silent War Zone” as Mass Shootings Surge

Another mass shooting in a Pretoria township has triggered a stark warning from criminologists: South Africa is in danger of silently becoming a “war zone,” and the relentless rise in assassinations and mass killings requires urgent, proactive intervention.

The latest tragedy unfolded in Atteridgeville on Wednesday afternoon, where five people were shot dead outside a tuck shop by unknown assailants who opened fire without a word before fleeing. This comes just a month after a mass shooting in Saulsville claimed 12 lives in December, and another in Bekkersdal that killed nine.

Experts Decry Reactive Policing and Normalized Violence

The repeated bloodshed has prompted a severe critique of the current policing strategy. Criminal law expert Cornelia van Graan stated that shooting crimes are demonstrably on the rise. “It is time that the police become proactive and deploy crime prevention strategies. Currently, policing is reactive and this is ineffective,” she said, calling for more visible policing and the addressing of underlying socio-economic drivers.

Rural criminologist Professor Witness Maluleke delivered an even grimmer assessment. “Our country is becoming a crime zone, with limited strategies to address it,” he said. “A human life is taken for granted… The country is silently becoming a war zone, and a civil rivalry for black-on-black crimes is currently witnessed and celebrated.”

A Pattern Without a Clear Motive

In the Atteridgeville case, police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili confirmed that no motive is yet known, and the investigation is ongoing. Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Tommy Mthombeni has mobilised specialised units, but the challenge appears systemic.

The experts’ alarm underscores a terrifying normalisation of extreme violence in communities. The calls are no longer just for arrests after the fact, but for a fundamental shift in approachfrom reactive policing to preventative action, and a deeper confrontation with the social disintegration that allows such brutal killings to proliferate. For many communities, the fear is not of a potential crime, but of the next, inevitable massacre.

{Source: Citizen}

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