EIGHT DEAD IN MASS SHOOTING - Cops on manhunt after linking Philippi attack to extortion gangs

POLICE have launched a manhunt for three known suspects after the Marikana mass shooting which left eight people dead and two others critically injured on in the early hours of Saturday morning.

According to the police, the case docket will be updated to eight counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder following the cold-blooded attack at a shebeen in Marikana, Philippi East.

Six victims were killed at the scene, one died on the way to hospital, and another later succumbed to injuries after arriving at a medical facility. Two other victims sustained serious gunshot wounds.

Police said the shooting occurred shortly after midnight, at around 00.15am on 17 January. Of the eight people killed, one was a 43-year-old woman who owned the illegal liquor outlet.

The suspects fled the scene and, at the time of reporting, no arrests had been made.

Visiting the scene on Saturday, Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile said the attack bore the hallmarks of organised extortion violence.

He stated: “According to information, there could have been more than three people that came in and started shooting.”

Patekile confirmed that the woman who was killed was the owner of the shebeen and that several other patrons had been inside the premises at the time but were not injured.

“The motive is extortion and we can say that it is an extortion-related incident, patterned by groups of extortionists in this area,” he said.

Police have appealed to communities and businesses not to comply with extortion demands and to report threats. 

The absence of arrests, despite police confirming both the motive and the identification of suspects, has drawn sharp criticism from Ian Cameron, chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police.

Cameron said the scale of the attack, in which ten people were shot, underscored the intent behind the crime and reflected a recurring pattern in extortion-related violence.

“This is not a marginal detail. It underscores the scale and intent of the attack,” Cameron said, warning that mass casualties, limited immediate disruption of criminal networks and communities left exposed had become hallmarks of extortion-driven crime.

Cameron said Parliament would now demand clear answers on what intelligence existed prior to the attack, what preventive actions were taken, and why extortion gangs were allowed to operate with apparent impunity.