‘They danced until they died’ – Enyobeni tragedy highlights SA’s unhealthy relationship with booze

The children who died in the Enyobeni tavern in the Eastern Cape “danced until they died”, Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Monday.

He was speaking at the Rural Safety Summit in Parys, Free State, when he made the claim.

“Yesterday, 13 to 17 [year-old] kids, 21 of them, dead. Nine girls and 12 boys. When I speak to communities, they are heavy on police.

“Where were the police, Cele? Come on. Really? A 13 year old dies at 4am in the morning, they are asking where are the police? Really?

“Those kids started dying at 2.13am until 4am. They die as they dance. They dance, fall and die. Literally,” Cele said.

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“Others will just feel dizzy, sleep on the sofa, died. It tells you a story, because they were all kids, someone should have taken note,” Cele said with a frown.

He said the youngsters were falling, then other people would just push them to one side and carry on dancing.

The post-mortem results have yet to be revealed.

South African Medical Research Council alcohol, tobacco and other drugs research unit director Charles Parry said although the cause of the deaths was still unknown, there were challenges all around and the large part of it belonged to the liquor authorities and the police.

Liquor authorities were supposed to have inspectors, but outlets were not visited because there were not enough inspectors.

“I think we need to look if we should consider raising the licensing fee to generate money to pay for more inspectors who will properly monitor what is going on during the day or night time,” he said.

Parry said there was a serious issue of many unlicensed outlets.

“Perhaps liquor outlets need to be charged more or the licensing needs to depend on the volume an outlet sells where a bigger outlet pays more and a small one less.

”The Eastern Cape Liquor Board intends to lay chargers against the owner of the Enyobeni Tavern at Scenery Park in East London.

Its chief executive, Dr Nombuyiselo Makala, said necessary steps were being taken to deal with the liquor outlet.

While the South African Police Service (Saps) confirmed the deployment of maximum resources to investigate the deaths of the teenagers, Parry said the police should have known there was a liquor outlet trading in the early hours of the morning.

He said it was important to establish if this was the first time it was discovered to be operating at that time.

READ MORE: ‘It wasn’t my intention for this to happen’: Enyobeni tavern owner

He asked: “Did the police patrol, or do they know what is going on in the community?

“The challenge is put to the police also: did they know and if they did not know, why did they not know?”

It was understood the tavern had been the focus of community anger, as residents had previously complained to the police about the noise and the late operating hours.

Parry said questions should also be asked of the community’s knowledge of the tavern selling to minors and operating at those early hours of the morning.

“I am not saying a large part of the blame goes there, but I also wonder whether the community tolerated this and they need to take a tougher stand.”

According to World Health Organisation data (2019), South Africa’s drinking population consumed 28.9 litres of pure alcohol – per capita – a year, the fifth-highest consumption rate in the world.

Public health medicine specialist professor Susan Goldstein said there was a serious problem because less than half the population of South Africa did not drink alcohol, but those who did, drank in a very harmful way – to get intoxicated.

She said many taverns opened from Friday evening until Monday morning.

People stayed there, drinking all night and kids were just coping with this.

“If we do not denormalise this kind of behaviour then we are really in for just as many incidences. This is too sad and unspeakable,” she said.

READ MORE: Enyobeni tragedy wouldn’t happen in Sandton or Cape Town – here’s why

Goldstein said people who were responsible for ensuring law and order, like the police and members of the city councils, were doing nothing to safeguard communities and drinking by under-age people was ungovernable.

“Unless there are measures taken which are broad and change the norm, then this is something that will continue and it will not be something unusual, which is just awful.”

Goldstein added that during lockdown, when alcohol was banned, trauma centres had fewer people and some were empty.

She said people were not listening and seeing what life could be like if there was better alcohol control. “I am not saying ban it, but better control would be effective,” she said.