East London, South Africa — As his body was crushed, before he died, Simbon Guille Mutsweni gasped for air as a gas that felt like fire had sneaked into his nose and lungs. “When I came, I was upstairs and started vomiting when I noticed that I was lying next to a dead person,” he said.
Hundreds of young people attracted to Facebook notices promising to have a party with free alcohol and Wi-Fi at the end of the semester flock to a small crowded tavern in East London, a city on the south coast of South Africa. I did.
Twenty-one of them, all teens, couldn’t survive the night. A large funeral will be held on Wednesday, with President Cyril Ramaphosa scheduled to speak.
Witnesses, investigators, or nations, understand how a night of delight turned into a deadly stampede, leaving a broken, bleeding young man on the floor of the Enyoveni tavern in the Scenery Park Township in East London. I’m having a hard time doing it.
“We came for fun, not for the corpse,” said 18-year-old high school student Luba Barodongeni, who is still limping five days after the incident.
Authorities have not explained why people died or announced autopsy results, but the general public and authorities have found many targets of criticism and anger. The license given to a two-story tavern built in a hurry has only one entrance scrutinized, the couple who runs it has been criminally investigated, and the DJ who played there is a community of his He says he “seeks” blood. There is fierce speculation about the harmful gas that filled the air, the person who released it, and whether it contributed to death, a fatal panic, or both.
In an interview, six people inside the tavern and others outside said that the combination of mysterious gas, crushing people, and airless rooms could have caused the tragedy.
Township residents are furious with local police as it takes hours to answer emergency calls. Beyond East London, the episode sparked a national debate about underage drinking and the location of South African alcohol. Some have pointed out other systematic failures, from the location and construction of taverns to the loose enforcement of the liquor license law in townships.
The dead were 13 years old, most under the age of 18. The legal age to enter a bar and drink in South Africa is 18 years.
The teenager who was there that night is visibly traumatized.
A member of the high school boys’ soccer team was in the tavern, but the midfielder and goalkeeper never did it. The team striker said he is now suffering from survivor guilt.
The 19-year-old blamed herself for helping her 17-year-old friend attend the party and died there. Recently, when a group of teens visited a tavern and placed white plastic roses at the entrance, they overcame their emotions.
The entrance, a single metal door painted brown, was the focus of the night’s turmoil. The party was supposed to end at midnight on Saturday, June 25, but dozens of people were still trying to get inside, according to a video taken on their cell phones. After 12:30 am, the tavern was dark, but no one was flirting. Power outages are common in South Africa.
But when the flashing disco lights came back a few minutes later, gas drifted from the ground floor, the survivors said. Some say it smells like a pepper spray, while others liken it to tear gas.
People who tried to go out on a cold winter night hurried out. At that time, witnesses said guards closed the door and locked everyone inside.
While popular local dance music called Amapiano rang on the second floor, people on the first floor overcame each other and broke only two windows in a room under 350 square feet.
Rapper Brian Mapisa, who had just finished the set upstairs, said he could hear the gasping voice around him. He was heading downstairs to the exit when the door closed and began to be crushed. The trapped people pushed him hard and his legs were numb.
He remembered that they bit him when they tried to get over him. The semicircle of the scab on his forearm is still red after 6 days. Mapisa said the gas crouched when it touched the wound. He knelt down and was in a bad mood.
The survivors remembered that the music stopped only when the screams pierced the turmoil. Neon lights swirling brown murals on yellow walls, illuminated bodies spreading on the dance floor, and friends couldn’t revive them.
Some people jumped off the second floor. Only then did the guards open a lonely door to carry some of the bodies out, some survivors said.
Nolitha Qhekaza’s bedroom window is a few feet from the tavern entrance. When people jumped off the balcony, they landed on her roof. The dead and injured teenagers were placed in her vestibule, she said.A girl with a broken leg lay on the floor of the dining room until 7 am
Early that Sunday morning, 55-year-old grandmother Qhekaza called the police 10 times between 2:25 am and 3:35 am, her phone records show. ..
Police and ambulances have finally begun to arrive around 4 am, according to neighbors. When police blocked the area, parents tried to push the tape away. Some of the unconscious victims were still in the tavern, spread out on artificial leather sofas, or just lying on the dance floor — lined with dead and injured.
Images of scenes disseminated on social media. In that way, some parents learned that not only did the children go out that night, but they died.
“My son was in vogue,” said Sidwenn Rangile, the father of soccer team goalkeeper Mbulelo Rangile.
Unable to find his son at a local hospital, Rangil rushed to the morgue. At first, the boy’s skin was so dark that he did not recognize his son’s body in the line of corpses. Another victim, 17, was similarly unrecognizable just hours after her death, said her friend Sinenjongo Phuthumani, who was also in the tavern.
Even sad parents like Rangile face criticism in the devastating news coverage.
“If you point your finger, you need to point it at all of us,” he said. “But it’s unfair to blame us.”
Izakaya owners Siyakhangela and Vuyokazi Ndevu have been responsible for much of the public criticism.
Taverns that share walls with several private homes have long divided this community. There, the inhabitants slowly built houses using their savings. Neighbors complained about urine stains along the walls, empty bottles scattered outside, parties that lasted until 8am, and children’s vomiting in the yard.
Ndevus declined to comment.
Several neighbors said they met police and an inspector of the Eastern Cape Liquor Commission just three weeks before the disaster. However, a liquor store and police spokesman said there were no records of complaints about the tavern.
The tavern license was granted in 2012, but the tavern was unaware that the owner had recently added a second floor.
Last week, the Liquor Commission filed a criminal proceeding against the licensed name Vuyokazi Ndevu for selling alcohol to minors. Police have not disclosed whether to accuse her.
Nationally, the conversation was directed to South Africa, especially the poor, mostly black towns of alcohol abuse and unregulated taverns. More than half of South Africans do not drink alcohol, but those who report heavy drinking According to the World Health Organization..
In scenery parks, where drug use is on the rise, going to taverns is popular among teens and is considered not so bad, soccer started a football club for high school students. Coach Rudu Mosalman said.
“I hope this is a call for awakening because this is the reality of South Africa as a whole,” said Esethu Sotheni, who runs a non-profit organization for young people in the town of East London.
