Cape Town – The Enyobeni tavern at Scenery Park in East London, Eastern Cape, was a newsmaker in 2022 after 21 underage patrons died while partying in June this year.
The nation watched in collective shock as 21 young people were killed at the tavern, including teenagers as young as 13.
At the time, reports suggested some were crushed to death as they were gathering during a celebration of pens down, a tradition in South Africa that celebrates the end of school exams, but this was not confirmed by auhtorities involved in the investigation.
The preliminary findings announced by the provincial health department in August were not conclusive. Instead, the parents were told their children died from suffocation.
To help the relatives and survivors of the Enyobeni Tavern disaster, a legal team comprising of professionals in criminal law and civil litigation was assembled and the team is currently managed by Lawyers for Human Rights and an Eastern Cape law firm.
Amid the growing calls for the licence to be revoked, The Eastern Cape Liquor Board (ECLB) has since laid criminal charges against the owners of Enyobeni Tavern.
Mgwebi Msiya of the Eastern Cape Liquor Board said the tavern’s liquor licence remained suspended.
“So it remains closed, there are no operations at that liquor outlet and we are a step closer to revoking the trading licence,” Msiya said.
The couple is accused of selling and supplying liquor to under-18’s, and of conniving with, and permitting employees and agents, to sell or deliver liquor to minors.
The pair pleaded not guilty to the first count of selling liquor to underage children as well as the second charge, which deals with coercing two staff members to sell intoxicating drinks to minors.
During court appearances, the Enyobeni tavern owners said they would not apologise for the incident that killed 21 youngsters in June.
National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said they viewed the case in a very serious light and had assigned senior prosecutors to guide the investigations as mandated by the Constitution, to ensure that those criminally liable for the tragedy were prosecuted and faced the full might of the law.
“The families of the children, the affected community, and South Africans at large are anxious to see justice served for their children who died in such tragic circumstances,” Tyali said.
A few months after the Enyobeni deaths, another tragedy emerged and this time it was the killing of four children by their mother in Mhlabubomvu locality in Engcobo on Tuesday, November 8.
It was reported that a 32-year-old mother bludgeoned her children, aged between two to 11 to death with a hammer.
They had been sleeping with her in a rondavel at their homestead in the district of Ngcobo, while her aged parents were sleeping in a separate flat within the same homestead.
The father alerted his wife and summoned community members after making the gruesome discovery of his grandchildren. All of them had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
Weeks after the mother of the children (Nomboleko Simayile) had appeared in Court for murder, she was transferred to the local hospital after she fell sick in the holding cells and the matter against her was postponed in her absentia.
Police spokesperson in the Eastern Cape, Tembinkosi Kinana, said: “According to the information, whilst she was in police custody on Sunday afternoon the 20th November 2022, she reported to the police that she was not feeling well, but did not say what the nature of the sickness was,”
“She was then immediately rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention, where she allegedly died. The cause of death is yet to be established, once the post-mortem has been conducted,”
IOL