An hour of terror: what happened when 10 gunmen entered a Joburg settlement killing 12

Just before midnight on Tuesday, 9 June 2026, gunshots erupted through Jumpers informal settlement in Cleveland, Johannesburg.

Speaking to Daily Maverick at the scene of what has now been classified as a mass shooting, Jumpers resident Gugu Magaqa said the gunfire rang for more than an hour before an eerie quiet fell over the settlement. The latest mass shooting resulted in the death of 12 people. Earlier reports indicated that nine people were injured. However, during a walk-through of the informal settlement on Wednesday morning, Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant-GeneralTommy Mthombeni was approached by another wounded victim, bringing the total of those injured to 10 at the time of publication

‘Insane, heartless and barbaric’

“Insane, heartless and barbaric.” These are the words Mthombeni used to describe what lay before him during his visit to the crime scene on Wednesday morning. “You could see the way they were moving; they just entered and started shooting.”

Preliminary investigations have revealed that at least 10 suspects entered the gated informal settlement at about 11.10pm on Tuesday after being dropped off at an Astron petrol station across the road.

While many residents were visibly traumatised and apprehensive about speaking, a woman who asked not to be named told Daily Maverick that the gunmen weaved through the settlement with purpose, shooting indiscriminately.

Pointing to a clearing outside her door, she said: “My next-door neighbour was shot here. He ran and hid in his house, but they shot him again.”

She told the publication that the man survived and was taken to hospital.

Daily Maverick saw a room near a tavern where some of the bloodshed occurred. The floor was soaked in blood and marked with bloodied bare footprints. A mattress on the ground was also bloodstained.

There were also bullet casings littering the ground of the taped-off maze-like informal settlement.

Standing in the doorway of her informal dwelling, Magaqa showed Daily Maverick a hole in her wall, where a bullet had pierced it.

“I was sleeping when I suddenly heard one gunshot, then another. I just got under my bed and hid. All I was thinking was that I don’t want to die,” she said, describing what unfolded the previous night.

She said she only emerged from under her bed when she heard a frantic knock at her door. Standing there was a bloody resident, Thando Nonkosi Phiri, whose left cheek had been grazed by a stray bullet. Phiri showed Daily Maverick a wound behind her left ear where the bullet had struck her.

Although she was too traumatised to recount what she had experienced, Phiri said she was in extreme pain. She said she was not taken to hospital because she could not afford the ambulance ride; however, paramedics treated her wounds at the scene.

“We are all scared, we are all traumatised. How are people supposed to live with this type of fear?” Magaqa asked.

It was a sombre scene on the ground as residents, cordoned off by police tape, looked on as an SAPS pathologist carried the bodies of the deceased to the pathology van in a funeral-like procession.

Motive still unknown

According to Mthombeni, the SAPS could not confirm the motive of the mass shooting at this stage. He said that while a crime-intelligence-led operation three weeks earlier in the same settlement had recovered more than 1,000 rounds of AK47 ammunition, led to three arrests and the recovery of three pistols, the SAPS could not confirm if they were linked to this latest shooting.

Mthombeni also said that the shooting could not be linked to an alleged zama zama turf war as it was too early in the investigation to determine.

However, speaking to Daily Maverick on the sidelines of the crime scene, a crime intelligence officer said that the informal settlement was adjacent to a known illegal mine.

A witness on the ground also told the publication that illegal mining equipment had been found in one of the rooms where victims were shot.

The crime intelligence officers confirmed to Daily Maverick that the room was a refinery where zama zamas processed material.

Magaqa also told Daily Maverick that it was a known fact that zama zamas lived within the informal settlement, and that although this latest attack came as a surprise, it had happened in the settlement before.

Coordinated attack

One resident, who asked not to be named, said the circumstances surrounding this latest shooting were concerning, and pointed to a possible coordinated inside job. Perhaps even more unusual was the fact that the informal settlement was gated. The resident said that the municipality had installed the gate. She added that the gate was usually manned by security guards, but on the night of the shooting they were nowhere to be seen.

Manhunt under way

The police said that they would be reviewing CCTV footage from the petrol station to aid their hunt for the suspects responsible for the brutal attack.

Mthombeni also told the media that a hard drive had been recovered near the scene that may provide more information.

The Acting National Commissioner of the SAPS, Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane, has directed the deployment of additional national specialised capabilities to augment provincial teams. These include members from Forensic Services, Tactical Response teams and other specialised investigative resources to accelerate efforts aimed at identifying, tracing and apprehending those responsible.

A multidisciplinary task team comprising provincial and national experts would work around the clock to pursue all investigative and intelligence leads, including the tracing of a white Toyota Quantum allegedly linked to the incident.

“We have reinforced provincial efforts with additional national specialised resources to ensure that the investigation is expedited and that those responsible are swiftly brought to justice,” said Lieutenant-General Dimpane. DM

This is a developing story.