Gunmen attack South African house party

Oliver Conway (0:00)

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 Hours GMT on Wednesday the 23rd of September. Gunmen kill 11 people at a house party near Durban, as South Africa struggles to combat violent crime. Fears of a return to civil war in Ethiopia is DeGriand fighters battle government forces. And the head of the IMF warns advanced economies to reduce their debt burdens.

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South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with around 60 people killed every day. In one particularly deadly incident on Tuesday night, gunmen attacked a house party in a township outside Durban, killing 11 people, including a pregnant woman. I heard more from our correspondent in Johannesburg, Pumza Fiklani.

Pumza Fiklani (1:15)

The police have said, Oliver, that it's still very early in their investigation, but they are also following a lead where some of the victims, they say, had been on their crime watch list. They are saying this may mean that there was a rival feud involved that was behind the killing. It's something that's not that widely common in South Africa, mass shootings. Although the murder rate is high, it is something that does still shock a lot of people in this country to see mass shootings happen anywhere. But KZN, Kozono Natal, that area where that happened in, it's just another insight that's important to share there. It's a place where murder for hire is rife, the police have said. They're also looking at whether that was behind the motive, whether somebody paid these gunmen to carry out the shooting last night.

Oliver Conway (2:02)

Yeah. Tell us more about the high levels of violent crime that are affecting South Africa at the moment.

Pumza Fiklani (2:09)

Certainly, it's one of the highest across violent crime in the world with murder rate continuing to be something that's very difficult for the authorities, from the government to the police, to get a handle on. It's something that South Africans are widely concerned about, and that persecution rate, they've said, isn't as high as it can be. It takes very long for cases to get through the courts, and some instances for even arrests to happen. But it is something that is front of mind for a lot of South Africans because of how prevalent it is and just how widespread. There isn't one specific area, Oliver, that you can zero in on and say, if we solve it here, it goes away everywhere. It happens in each province and for various reasons. But the police have said that they're trying their level best in terms of renewing their training and getting as much resources as needed so they can get a handle on the situation.

Oliver Conway (3:01)

The government even sent in the army earlier this year. Is there anything more they can do?

Pumza Fiklani (3:06)

That should tell you how serious of a problem it is. We don't see the army on the streets of South Africa often. They only are ever called in when there's been a spike, really. And they're there to help the police effect arrests. So they don't effect arrests themselves. But they're there as extra backup because there are certain parts of the country where even the police themselves cannot just willingly go and they need that added support in terms of gunfire. And we see in areas where that does happen, there is temporarily a reduction of violent crime.

Oliver Conway (3:37)

Bumza Fikhlani in Johannesburg.

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned advanced economies to cut their borrowing. Kristalina Georgieva said debt levels had been pushed up by global shocks, but governments hadn't done enough to tackle the spiralling cost of interest. She spoke to our economics editor Faisal Islam at the UN General Assembly.

Kristalina Georgieva (3:58)

Our message to everybody is you cannot control exogenous factors, but you have control over your domestic policies. So make sure you stay ahead of inflation, keep inflation back and to governments get on top of your debt issue.

I have seen shock after shock pushing debt levels up, like a staircase not to heaven and no action to contain the debt service costs. So time to take that action.

Faisal Islam (4:38)

You are the world's financial and fiscal watchdog.

You mark the homework, if you like, of entire governments, especially at times like this. There's been a government bond market, borrowing market shock, frankly, over the summer, affecting the biggest nations in the world. The policy advice you're saying quite clearly is to respond to this shock with lower borrowing, potentially lower spending, potentially tax rises.