Biker War in Pretoria? One Dead After Waterkloof Pub Shooting
Is there a biker war in Pretoria? A single shot at the Little Britain Pub in Waterkloof on Saturday night killed a member of the MAC’S Motorcycle Club and wounded another. The man police arrested is linked to the Crusaders, a club whose leadership has been at odds with the MAC’S for more than a year.
Within a day, the shooting was being told as the start of a biker war. A crime reporter at The Citizen says there is one. Daily Maverick put the death in a headline about drug busts and international outlaw gangs. And the pub has banned every motorcycle club patch at its door.
What the police describe is a single shot, fired after an argument between two men. There is no evidence that the argument had anything to do with their clubs, and nobody has said what it was about. This article sets out what is confirmed, where the biker war claim comes from, and why the riders who had nothing to do with it are the ones paying for it.
What happened at the Little Britain Pub
On Saturday 10 October 2026, at about 20:00, police were called to the Little Britain Pub at the Waterkloof Lifestyle Centre on Cliff Avenue in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria. Police spokesperson Captain Johan van Dyk said officers found a man with a gunshot wound to the right side of his chest, and he was taken to a nearby hospital (News24, 11 October 2026).
“Inside the pub, near the entrance, police found a 55-year-old man who had sustained a gunshot wound to the middle of his chest. He was declared deceased at the scene.”
Captain Johan van Dyk, SAPS, to News24
According to the police, an argument broke out between the shooter and the man who survived. The shooter drew a firearm, shot him, and left on a motorcycle.
“Preliminary information indicates that only one shot was fired, and one cartridge was recovered at the scene. It is further suspected that the bullet passed through and injured a victim before killing the deceased.”
Captain Johan van Dyk, SAPS, to News24
So the man who died is not the man the shooter was arguing with. According to the police, the bullet went in on the right side of the survivor’s chest, came out of his back, and struck the 55-year-old (Maroela Media, 11 October 2026). The police do not say the man who died had any part in the argument.
The suspect was arrested on Sunday morning, and News24 reports his firearm was seized. Police told Maroela Media he is also 55. He faces charges of murder and attempted murder and was due in the Hatfield Magistrate’s Court on Monday 12 October (The Citizen, 12 October 2026). At the time of writing, neither the suspect nor the man who died had been named.
Two clubs and a feud
Van Dyk told The Citizen and Daily Maverick that both men who were shot are members of the MAC’S, and that the suspect is linked to the Crusaders. The police call this preliminary information.
These are not small clubs. The MAC’S Motorcycle Club is a registered non-profit company that six bikers founded in 1980. Its president, Mannetjie Geyser, told the Sunday Times in June 2025 that the club has about 2 000 riders in 164 chapters across South Africa, Eswatini and Namibia. The Crusaders have chapters across the country, from Cape Town to Mbombela.
The trouble between the two clubs did not start on Saturday. In June 2025, the Sunday Times reported that the clubs had been at loggerheads for almost a year, with fists flying from Rustenburg to Pretoria. At the heart of it were claims that the Crusaders recruited MAC’S members, including men the MAC’S had expelled. Geyser said the MAC’S had ended its part in an alliance between the three big clubs: the Hells Angels, the MAC’S and the Crusaders.
The Crusaders’ national president, Mark Groenewald, denied that his club was causing trouble and called the MAC’S bullies. Then he said this.
“There are no real issues between our members on the ground. The dispute is between our two national tables.”
Mark Groenewald, Crusaders national president, to the Sunday Times, June 2025
The Citizen reports that the tension carried on, including an alleged fistfight in Jeffreys Bay on Boxing Day. That is the history between the leaderships. It does not tell you what two men argued about on Saturday night, and nobody has said it was about the feud.
Where the biker war claim comes from
Less than three hours after the shooting, Marizka Coetzer, a crime reporter at The Citizen, wrote a public post about it, and the MAC’S Motorcycle Club shared it on its own page. She wrote that when she previously spoke out about the biker war in South Africa, she was intimidated, threatened and told there was no such thing. Her report in The Citizen on Monday said months of tension between the clubs had fuelled fears of a biker war in South Africa (The Citizen).
The police have not said anything about a biker war. What the police describe is an argument and one shot.
The outlaw gang headline
Daily Maverick went further. Its headline on 11 October read: “Biker shot dead as SA drug busts rev up global outlaw motorcycle gang fears” (Daily Maverick). Most of the article is about Mexican cartel drug factories, the Bandidos and Comancheros outlaw clubs from Australia and the United States, and the South African leader of a Dutch outlaw club who was murdered in Cape Town in 2020. The main image combines a police photo of a crystal meth lab in Limpopo, an AI-generated image of white powder, and a motorbike.
In the same article, Daily Maverick wrote this about the shooting.
“There was no indication that it was linked to drugs or international outlaw groups.”
Daily Maverick, 11 October 2026
It also wrote that many biker clubs in South Africa operate within registered or mainstream structures and do not have outlaw status. So the article itself says there is no link, and it still puts a local rider’s death in a headline next to drug busts and international outlaw gangs.
In my view, that is unfair to the biker community in this country. A rider who has never been near a drug lab now sees his club and his patch under a headline about drugs and outlaw gangs. Nothing in any report links the man who died to drugs or to an outlaw group. To be fair to Daily Maverick, the drug factories are real, and the concern about international outlaw clubs coming to South Africa may well be valid. That is a story worth reporting. It is a different story, and it should not be told on the back of a local rider’s death.
Who pays for it
Within hours of the shooting, the pub made its decision. Little Britain Pub said it has always been bike-friendly and will remain so.
“However, we regret to announce that, with immediate effect, motorcycle club patches will no longer be permitted on our premises. This policy applies equally to all clubs and does not assign blame to any club or the wider biking community.”
Little Britain Pub management, public statement, as quoted by News24
I understand why the pub did it. When you walk into a pub wearing your colours, you have already chosen a side. If an argument starts, your colours decide which side you are on. With no colours in the room, a pub that is often open to families is calmer, or so it is hoped.
Look at who loses, though. The man accused of the shooting is in custody. The riders who follow their club’s rules are the ones who can no longer walk in wearing their colours.
Pubs have paid for this feud before. In 2025, the owners of the Red Door pub in Pretoria North told the Sunday Times that their turnover dropped after the trouble between these two clubs started. Co-owner Shaun Pretorius said they made about R25 000 to R30 000 on an average Saturday before. Afterwards they were lucky to make R20 000, and the Saturday before the article they made R17 000. They then hired security at R2 800 a week.
“We are a biker-friendly but neutral bar. As long as the bikers respect that, we can do business together.”
Shaun Pretorius, Red Door pub, to the Sunday Times, June 2025
Is there a biker war in Pretoria?
On what is on the record, no. There is a feud between the leadership of two big clubs that has run for more than a year. And there is one man who allegedly brought a firearm into an argument and fired it.
That man must answer for it in court, as a man and not as a patch. The Crusaders’ own president said this dispute is between the two national tables. Those leaders have to answer to their members for letting the feud run so long that every fight between their members is now read as part of it.
Thousands of riders in this country belong to clubs with their own rules. On Saturday night, one of them was killed. The riders who are left deserve better than to be called gangsters for what one man allegedly did.
If there is significant news from the court, I will make an update video.
Sources
- Maroela Media, “Een dood, een gewond ná skietvoorval by Pretoria-kroeg”, 11 October 2026: maroelamedia.co.za
- News24, Lisalee Solomons, “Little Britain Pub says no: Biker club patches banned after fatal shooting at Pretoria venue”, 11 October 2026: news24.com
- The Citizen, Marizka Coetzer, “Ban on biker patches after Pretoria biker clash leaves one dead, another injured”, 12 October 2026: citizen.co.za
- Daily Maverick, Caryn Dolley, “Biker shot dead as SA drug busts rev up global outlaw motorcycle gang fears”, 11 October 2026: dailymaverick.co.za
- Sunday Times, Hendrik Hancke, “Bikers to court after k-word kerfuffle”, 15 June 2025: sundaytimes.timeslive.co.za
- Little Britain Pub, public statement, 11 October 2026
