It is now almost two months since the Enyobeni tragedy, where 21 teenagers have lost their lives in a night club. And still the is no arrest made.

Enyobeni tarven have been operational with their license under Liquorboard from 2011. it is one of 7555 liquor businesses running under only 16 inspectors in East London. The closeby neighbors have signed and approved the opening of the tarven in 2011.

Years passed and Enyobeni tarven got renovated and the entire setup was changed. We have not heard that the neighbors have also approved the new style and the renovations. We only know that they have been complaining about the noise, littering, underage drinking, etc. And the Liquorboard and the police have been called for intervention but that was all in vain. Afterall, it was no secret that Enyobeni Tarven allowed underage drinkers in their premises as the pictures of teenagers with alcohol in their hands were all over their Facebook page which got deactivated just few weeks after the tragedy.

In the early hours of the 26th of June, families were woken up by sad news. They had to go and identify lifeless bodies of their kids. East London Police Station were the first to respond to the scene, while the local (Scenery Park) police station were not reachable. 

As the community, we are still shocked. We have so many questions. This is all a result of service delivery that is lacking in our communities. We still want the police to answer as to why they were not available while the children needed rescue. We want to know what killed the kids in Enyobeni Tarven. We want the owner to face the law and be not granted any bail as this tragedy happened in his premises and also he allowed the kids to buy and drink alcohol. The survivors can confirm that before 9pm they were given free alcohol.

As the residents that approved the tarven to be operational, we now want it to be turned into a monument and a youth development center. We want to remember the 21 lives every year in June. We want other teenagers to have fun in Enyobeni without consuming alcohol, but developing their minds and skills.