Marikana mass shooting linked to extortion gangs as police pursue suspects

Police have confirmed that the Marikana mass shooting, which left eight people dead and two others critically injured, was linked to extortion-related crimes with investigators now focusing on three known suspects who remain at large.

According to the police, the case docket will be updated to eight counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder following the early-morning 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 January 17. 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 Thembisile Patekile said the attack bore the hallmarks of organised extortion violence. “According to information, there could have been more than three people that came in and started shooting,” he said.

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. “We could prevent more of these incidents if people report who’s extorting and who’s demanding money for protection,” Patekile said.

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.

He said repeated identification of extortion as a motive pointed to a systemic failure of prevention rather than an isolated incident.

The criticism was echoed by the GOOD Party, which said the Marikana shooting exposed a dangerous blind spot in crime statistics and resource allocation.

In a statement, Jonathan Cupido, City councillor, said persistent gunfire, intimidation and shootings reported by community crime groups were largely invisible in official crime data.

Cupido said SAPS crime statistics only recorded firearm violence once someone was killed or seriously injured, excluding “shots fired” and intimidation incidents that communities experienced daily. “This matters because resources follow statistics,” he said, warning that areas appeared safer on paper than they were in reality, resulting in fewer resources and delayed intervention.

He said the Marikana attack did not come out of nowhere, adding that communities had been raising alarms for months.

“Crime is not experienced as a spreadsheet. It is experienced as gunfire outside your home,” Cupido said.

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. “Communities deserve more than statements of condemnation.

They deserve visible arrests, financial investigations that dismantle extortion rackets, and accountability for why known threats are allowed to escalate to mass murder,” he said.

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