South Africa: Cleveland Shooting Shows Why South Africans Don't Feel the 'Decline in Crime'

Mass shootings continue to occur across Gauteng, even as the murder rate has declined over the last couple of months. But such shootings hit the poorest of communities, and the police need to do more to stop them.

Twelve people were shot dead in Cleveland, Johannesburg, on Tuesday night, 9 June. And more than ten injured. The men who did it, police think there were more than 10 of them, arrived by minibus at the Jumpers informal settlement, walked in through two gates, fired on whomever was in front of them, and drove off. By Wednesday morning there were no arrests and no motive anyone could state with any confidence.

READ MORE An hour of terror: what happened when 10 gunmen entered a Joburg settlement killing 12 June 10, 2026 If that were the only incident, it would be a tragedy and we could grieve it as one. It isn't. In December, 12 people were killed in Saulsville and another nine in Bekkersdal in the same week. In February, one attack in Meyerton left six dead and 18 wounded. Olievenhoutbosch, Langlaagte, Westbury, Eldorado Park, Reiger Park. The list goes back more than a year, and it reads like something out of a conflict zone.

And yet the official line is that violent crime in Gauteng is coming down. Both are true at once, and that is the problem.

What the crime stats say, and...