More than a year after 21 children died at the Enyobeni Tavern, parents are still seeking complete autopsy reports from the authorities. In court for selling alcohol to minors, the tavern owners say they did nothing wrong.
The parents of those who died at the Enyobeni Tavern in June 2022 will head to the SAPS forensic pathology services facility in Woodbrook, East London, on Monday to demand the release of the full autopsy reports into the deaths of their children.
Twenty-one young people, aged between 13 and 17, died at the tavern in Scenery Park, East London, in the early hours of 26 June 2022. They were attending a “pens down” party to celebrate the end of the June exams.
A postmortem report shared with parents said the victims had injuries associated with being crushed and suffocated, but the results of a final toxicology report have not been made public.
A preliminary report found that the victims had methanol, a type of alcohol potentially deadly to humans, in their blood. Follow-up tests were reportedly performed to determine whether the methanol concentrations were fatal, but the results have not been released. The police have said they cannot divulge details of the follow-up tests, or even whether they’ve received the results, while investigations continue.
Methanol is sometimes found in counterfeit alcohol and home-brewed alcohol that has not been adequately monitored.
“When a person has died, the family gets the…