JOHANNESBURG (AFP, REUTERS, NYTIMES) - South African authorities are investigating the deaths of 21 teenagers found inside a popular township tavern in East London, police officials said on Sunday (June 26).
Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said police were alerted by members of the public at 4am to the incident at Scenery Park, about 3km from the city centre.
Initial reports were that the teenagers, who police say ranged in ages from 13 to 17, died from a stampede. But Bheki Cele, the national police minister, said investigators had not confirmed that theory.
President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his sympathy in a statement. And senior officials descended upon the Scenery Park neighborhood, northwest of East London’s city center, to help attend to the fallout from the tragedy.
Television news footage showed local residents, many of them seeking information about loved ones, gathered on a dirt road outside the modest building housing the bar, Enyobeni Tavern.
“We really cannot understand what has happened here,” the Eastern Cape premier, Oscar Mabuyane, told reporters.
Unathi Binqose, the spokesman for the Department of Community Safety in the Eastern Cape, said the tavern had hosted a large party Saturday night, featuring two DJs who were celebrating their birthdays.
The party was also billed as a celebration of South Africa’s dropping its mask mandate for public places, Binqose said.
“It attracted huge numbers, more than the tavern can accommodate,” he said of the party.
Bouncers told investigators that in an effort to control the crowd, they closed the doors to the venue, Binqose said.
People outside were said to have tried to push their way in, setting off a panic and a stampede, which may have been exacerbated by someone releasing pepper spray, he said.
But the theory of a stampede seemed inconsistent with what forensic experts had found so far in terms of injuries to the victims, Binqose said.
Victims were found sprawled on the gray tile floor, but also on a sofa and a coffee table.
“In terms of physical evidence, nothing points to a stampede,” he said.
He said police had seized surveillance footage taken at the bar.
