Authorities have dismissed a stampede as the cause of death in the Enyobeni tavern tragedy, while they are still awaiting the findings of the post-mortem examination. Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe, the MEC for Community Safety in the Eastern Cape, said that testing and investigations were being carried out, and that the results will be sent to a lab.
“We are taking out the issue of stampede because others were lying on the ground. We are saying there is no stampede because there were three young people who were coming to speak to us when we got to the scene, and they fainted along the way. One of them has since died while en-route to hospital. This means what they consumed remained in their bodies,” she explained.
The MEC stated that the post-mortem results will be made public as soon as all required testing had been completed. She claimed in an interview with eNCA that detectives are confirming the ages of the youngsters there and the hours of trading that were disregarded in order to help establish a case against the bar owner.
The tavern has been closed down in the meantime by the Eastern Cape Liquor Board. The proprietor of the tavern received a notice, according to Inspector Zola Tyikwe.
