Article author:
Reuters
East London — South African mourners expressed anger and despair after the deaths of 21 teenagers in a tavern over the weekend.
The unexplained deaths of teens are celebrating the end of school exams, while others are celebrating birthday parties. Authorities have ruled out the previously advertised concept of stampede.
Residents of Scenery Park on the edge of East London have asked authorities to close a few weeks ago as the Anyobeni Tavern was servicing underage children. Said.
The tavern license was revoked on Monday.
At a prayer meeting in a local church, mourners and priests sang, prayed, struck hymn books, and shouted for the loss of young people.
"I'm very devastated. 50-year-old Maxaviso Sibotbotbot, whose 17-year-old granddaughter Monero died, told Reuters on the phone from a church memorial service.
"People were complaining about the tavern. No one was happy with it. The community wanted to close the tavern," he said.
He said Monero did not live with her parents because his father died and her mother worked far away from home.
Photos on social media, not yet confirmed by authorities, show the bodies of young people lying scattered on the floor of a tavern.
"We are very sad, everyone. We lost one of our family members, a child who was in grade 12 (final year) this year. We can accept it. I can't, "said her aunt Yandiswa Ngqoza, holding her tears outside the morgue in black.
"There are no visible injuries in the child's appearance," Ngqoza said before crying. A few minutes ago she entered her morgue and identified her niece who did not reveal her name.
"Addiction"
Brigadier General Tenbin Koshikinana, a spokesman for the Eastern Cape State Police, told Reuters that the youngest victim was a 13-year-old girl. Emotional police minister Bheki Cele began crying on Sunday and had to pause and scream among the audience outside the morgue.
"It's either a sign of addiction or inhalation, whether it's food or drink," said Unathi Binqose, a spokesman for the Eastern Cape Regional Safety Agency. Says. He said on the phone Monday, before the toxicology report was still awaited. He said the water giselle pipe is shown in the CCTV footage of the scene.
"We are excluding stampede," he added, after the initial media coverage suggested that this might have been the cause.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday that he was worried about the situation where young people under the age of 18 were allowed to gather in taverns. It is illegal to serve drinks to people under the age of 18 in South Africa.
(Report by Wendell Roelf and East London in Cape Town and additional report by Tim Kok in Johannesburg, edited by Peter Graf and William McLean)
