At least 21 teenagers died over the weekend after a night out at a township tavern in South Africa, officials said on Sunday.
Although the cause of the deaths is still unclear, local officials and politicians said they feared that this might have been a case of underage drinking that went tragically wrong.
The Eastern Cape Government said eight girls and 13 boys had died at the tavern, in a residential area called Scenery Park.
Photo: AFP
Seventeen were found dead at the scene, while the rest died in hospital.
Empty bottles of alcohol, wigs and even a pastel purple “Happy Birthday” sash were found strewn on the dusty street outside the two-story Enyobeni Tavern, said Unathi Binqose, a government safety official who arrived at the scene at dawn.
Many of the victims are thought to have been students celebrating the end of their high-school exams on Saturday night, officials said.
There were no visible wounds on the bodies, but autopsies would determine if the deaths could be linked to poisoning, they added.
Among the senior government officials who rushed to the southern city was South African Minister of Police Bheki Cele.
He broke down in tears after emerging from a morgue where the bodies were being stored.
“It’s a terrible scene,” he told reporters. “They are pretty young. When you are told they are 13 years, 14 years and you go there and see them, it breaks [you].”
Drinking is permitted for those aged 18 or older.
However, in township taverns, which are often situated next to family homes, safety regulations and drinking age laws are not always enforced.
“We have a child that was there, who passed away on the scene,” the parents of a 17-year-old girl said.
“This child, we were not thinking was going to die this way. This was a humble child, respectful,” mother Ntombizonke Mgangala said, standing next to her husband outside the morgue.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is attending the G7 summit in Germany, sent his condolences.
He voiced concern “about the reported circumstances under which such young people were gathered at a venue which, on the face of it, should be off-limits to persons under the age of 18.”
Authorities are mulling whether to revise liquor licensing rules.
South Africa is among the countries in Africa where the most alcohol is consumed.
Eastern Cape Prime Minister Oscar Mabuyane condemned the “unlimited consumption of liquor.”
“You can’t just trade in the middle of society like this and think that young people are not going to experiment,” he said outside the township tavern.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS