On the 16th June 2022, the world learnt of the tragic passing of 21 children between age 13 and 21. This happened in a tavern called Enyobeni situated in Phase 1, Scenery Park in East London in the Eastern Cape.
According to the recent news, Enyobeni Tavern owners (Siyakhangela Ndevu and his wife, Vuyokazi Ndevu) have admitted that they did sell fake alcohol which contained Methanol. (Eastern Cape Health Department Media Briefing, Eye Witness News, 21 July 2022). This is also called Methyl alcohol, defined as a toxic, colourless, volatile liquid alcohol, made chiefly by oxidizing methane. This toxic substance was banned in Europe as of May 2019 for use in windscreens washing or defrosting. It had been used as an antifreeze and presents a clear and extremely high risk to human health. If inhaling this toxic chemical is harmful to human health, what more will drinking it do?
This was purely a criminal act by the tavern owner resulting in 21 kids dying in what is suspected to be alcohol poisoning. “One of the factors that distinguish man from animal is that man has a conscience. In South Africa you would look for in vain to discover this basic quality of man.” (Leonard Nikani, My life under white supremacy and in exile, p94)
Living as Youth in Scenery Park
This is a working-class informal settlement. However, over time some residents managed to build themselves decent houses. It is alongside a middle-class area called Highway Gardens where a mixture of workers from Mercedes Benz and civil servants lives. From Phase 1 across the Black Road is an industrial area called Wilsonia where some of the residents get jobs and get paid a pittance.
The children who happened to gather at the tavern were school going youth. Some of them were from in and around East London and, according to their language, visited the spot to “drown examination papers”. This disaster happened in the wake of another one where school children from Dale College in King William’s Town died in a tragic accident in Breidbacht near King William’s Town in May 2022. They were on their way back from a hockey match in East London. Two died in that accident. Dale College Students had to drive to East London, 65km from King William’s Town for the games with Hudson Park High School (another Model C School) simply because their neighbouring schools from the working-class areas i.e., townships such as Zwelitsha, Litha, Phakamisa and Dimbaza have no playgrounds and there are no amenities in the townships. Sporting codes are non-existent.
In Mdantsane it is the same situation; schools have no playgrounds. The tennis court in N.U1 has been vandalised and in N.U2 it is used as a construction site. The swimming pool has been neglected for years.
How else are the children of this land expected to keep themselves busy when sport has collapsed? A healthy mind is always inseparable from a healthy body. Unfortunately, alcohol substituted all that because of neglect by the government. The State President attended the “controversial memorial” of the 21 children that died in Scenery Park. He sanctimoniously told the parents of the deceased youngsters that they must take responsibility for what happened. Him being “shocked” has become the standard response from arrogant ANC politicians who abuse tragic events like this to sermonise to oppressed communities.
On top of these problems the many broader crises that beset the Eastern Cape have been oppressing school youth for years on end: high dropout rates for grades 10 and 11; overcrowded classrooms of 80 students plus students per class; closing of schools by the education department; no payment of teachers and building contractors; no textbooks (Daily Maverick, GroundUp Education, 26 May 2022). The list is endless. Scandalous as it is, the 2021 National Education Infrastructure Management System report states that “there are still 1473 schools in the Eastern Cape that have plain pit latrines that need to be replaced, with 944 of those schools having no sanitation facilities besides these illegal plain pit latrines.”
The Struggle for Socialist Democracy Continues!