For several terrifying minutes, Andile* squeezed his body under the pool table at Mdlalose’s Tavern in Orlando East, Soweto, while a man wielding an AK-47 stood by the door, about two metres away, randomly shooting at patrons.

As wounded customers fell on the floor next to the frightened Andile, the gunman ran off but, seconds later, two more men armed with 9mm pistols walked in to finish off whoever they thought was still alive...