[Source: Reuters]

Residents of the South African township of Wedela said on Monday they were living in fear after a tavern shooting ​at the weekend killed 18 people – bullet casings from AK-47 assault rifles on the street a stark reminder of the violence.

A separate shooting ‌near Cape Town early Sunday morning killed 10 people, drawing condemnations and promises of action from President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Wedela residents said the feuding illegal miners they believed were behind the slayings were living among them, and that they lived in constant fear of further violence.

Police spokesperson Brenda Muridili acknowledged some communities near Johannesburg “are being terrorised by illegal miners … wielding rifles”. She said ​police were working with the army to try to disrupt the gangs that control the illicit gold-mining trade and stop violent crime.

A convoy ​of police and army trucks drove through the area, about 80 km (50 miles) from Johannesburg, in a show of force around ⁠midday.

Heavily armed units stood near the crime scene but stayed for less than an hour.

Police say eight suspects wanted in connection with the killings are ​still at large.
Women ran errands and children played in the streets but when approached residents looked over their shoulders and lowered their voices.

“We fear even just to ​go to the shop to buy just a small thing because you never know. Maybe you can be next,” Nonyameko Bekezulu, 32, whose husband was killed in the attack, told Reuters from her family home a few blocks from the tavern.

Bekezulu was at home with her 4-year-old daughter when the gunshots rang out. She called her husband but it went to ​voicemail so she rushed to the tavern.

“That’s when I found my husband lying there. … All I wanted was just to check his pulse if he’s just ​still breathing or what. But they couldn’t let us inside,” she said, sitting in bed surrounded by close family.