South Africa: unprecedented drama with the death of 21 young people in an informal bar
Steph Deschamps / June 28, 2022
At dawn on Sunday, the bodies of 17 young people, some as young as 13, were found in a shebeen (township bar, poor suburb) in East London in the south of the country. Four died later in hospital. Thirteen boys, eight girls in total, no apparent injuries. Sinovuyo Monyane, 19, a survivor, tells AFP about the crowd, the lack of air: I fainted. I was out of breath, there was a strong smell, a kind of spray. We thought it was pepper spray.
The young woman reached by phone, who was working that night for a liquor brand, regained consciousness when she was hit in the face with water. There were bodies lying around. Some people sprayed them with water but they didn't even move. According to the DJ, Luhlemela Ulana, the situation in the crowded room of the two-story building had become unmanageable. He recalls trying in vain to calm the partygoers by stopping the music.
We tried to close the door but people kept pushing. The bouncers couldn't handle the crowd, he explains. The owner of the bar, called on Saturday night, said it was a shoving match. He risks prosecution.
Alcohol intoxication, poisoning, several tracks are for the moment evoked on the origin of the deaths. Autopsies are underway, said the authorities. In total, 31 people were taken to hospital. Vomiting, headaches, some complained of back and chest pain. Two people are still hospitalized. Samples were taken and sent by plane today to Cape Town, 800 km west of East London, where toxicological and other tests are to be carried out, said Unathi Binqose, a government official in charge of security issues.
A special team of investigators was sent from Pretoria. So far, the police have not made any arrests. According to the authorities, most of the victims are students who were celebrating the results of their final exams. On Sunday, parents and relatives of the missing youths gathered outside the bar, while mortuary cars transported the bodies to the morgue. The police minister, in tears, described terrible images after seeing the bodies. President Cyril Ramaphosa regretted that teenagers had been admitted to a place that, on the face of it, should be off-limits to people under the age of 18.
In South Africa, the consumption of alcohol is forbidden to people under 18 years old. But the legislation is not always enforced, especially in informal bars. Shebeens were illegal drinking establishments under apartheid. Today they are allowed or tolerated in the townships, former black ghettos. The head of the African Union Commission, Chadian Moussa Faki Mahamat, expressed his sadness in a tweet and offered his prayers at this time of unspeakable sorrow and pain.