NOS
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NOS News•today, 06:28
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Elles van Gelder
correspondent Afrika
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Elles van Gelder
correspondent Afrika
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to crack down on illegal bars that let in minors. In this way he hopes to prevent a repeat of the tragedie in East Londonwhere a week and a half ago 21 young people died in a nightclub in the township.
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Landscape Park is the name of the neighborhood where the drama took place in the coastal town of East London. A park where the landscape does not consist of green lawns and rolling hills, but a township like so many in South Africa with partly slums, partly small stone houses, no playgrounds or kick fields, but a lot of cafes and drink shops.
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It was in the nightclub Enyobeni, now nicknamed the Café of Death, where a huge tragedy took place. A week and a half ago, the alarm was sounded at night: young people lay lifeless on the dance floor and bent over tables. The victims were between thirteen and seventeen years old, while in South Africa you are only allowed to enter a pub and drink alcohol from the age of eighteen.
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On the floor of the pub you can see that chaos broke out. Loose shoes, handbags and necklaces are scattered here and there. The cause of death has still not been officially announced, much to the frustration of the parents. It would be poisoning, possibly carbon monoxide. But the investigation is delayed.
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As the youths are laid to rest this week, the neighborhood grapples with what happened. On the street corner in front of the pub, local residents talk. “Drinking was socially acceptable in this neighborhood,” says a single mother. “This could have been anyone’s kid.”
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Immediately after the disaster, the Minister of Police lashed out at the parents. Because how could they allow their child to be in a bar in the middle of the night? That comment infuriated Thobeka, mother of a 14-year-old victim. It is salt in open wounds. “Doesn’t he have children of his own? I can’t lock up my son.”
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A lot of people walk around drunk here. And there is no intervention by the government. Everyone is ignoring the rules.
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Yet this is a bigger story than that of rebellious teenagers. Thobeka’s son grows up in a very different neighborhood from the minister’s. “There is nothing for young people to do in our neighborhood,” says Tsemese, who lost his 15-year-old son. In addition, young people in the neighborhood are given a bad example. “A lot of people walk around here drunk. That’s what they see. And the government is not intervening. Everyone is ignoring the rules.”
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South Africans are among the heaviest drinkers in the world, says Ndzwana Makaula, an economist specializing in youth. He stands at the door of the pub and looks at the flower arrangements that have been laid there. “It is driven by poverty, people who have given up all hope of a better life.”
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Because the Eastern Cape province is the least developed region of the country. This also means that many children grow up in broken homes. Sixty percent of children grow up without a father.
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“Partly because of labor migration. Because there are no jobs here, fathers or sometimes both parents move to the city and children are left with single mothers or relatives. That is, I think, the reason why children do what they want and end up in the pub,” says makaula.
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We are so bitter about our situation. And we pass on all that anger to our children. That’s why they’re in the pub.
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He hopes this will wake up South Africa. That the government should care more about the youth, but also that all adults in the neighborhood look after all children and keep them on the right path.
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Many local residents do not trust that. “We are so bitter about our situation,” single mother Thembi says. “Bitter for the fathers who are gone. Bitter because our kids don’t have role models. Because the government is failing us. Angry because we don’t have a job. And we pass all that anger on to our kids. That’s why they’re in the bar. I know not how we can break this cycle.”
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