‘The village failed Enyobeni tavern children’
Business forum boss says we’re all to blame
A senior Border-Kei Chamber of Business official says the Enyobeni tavern tragedy reflects a greater societal problem and that all stakeholders need to shoulder the blame for the deaths of 21 children in Scenery Park on Sunday.
The chamber’s executive director, Lizelle Maurice, said the children’s parents, bouncers at the tavern, the Eastern Cape Liquor Board, police and the tavern owner must all bear some responsibility.
“We are all to blame. There is the saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.
“Sadly, for 21 young people in Scenery Park, this was not the case,” Maurice said. “Their premature deaths attest to the fact that the village failed them. Their hopes and dreams died with them on Sunday.
“The whole village, therefore, is to blame. We are all to blame. From the parents who were not even aware that their children had slipped out of the house, to the municipality that allowed the business to trade without proper zoning.
“To the liquor board inspector who issued the liquor licence without doing a proper inspection of the facility, to the bouncers at the door who did not check their ages to ensure under-age children did not slip through.”
Maurice said law enforcement officials who did not ensure tavern’s liquor trading hours were adhered to – it was meant to stop selling alcohol at midnight – and the business owner “who did not care whether those children were eight or 18” were also to be blamed. Society needed to uphold good morals. “We have become a tolerant society where nothing is questioned and acted upon any more.
“Surely there were other adults in that facility who saw that those children were too young to be there?
“Which begs the question: does it really take a village to raise a child? Or has the village become too busy with its own issues and too caught up in the politics of the day?”
Yesterday, clergy members gathered in Scenery Park for a prayer service in memory of the young victims, aged between 13 and 17.
A joint memorial service is planned on Saturday with a mass funeral for Wednesday.
Maurice said: “The BorderKei Chamber of Business joins the many voices offering heartfelt condolences to the families who lost their young in that tavern.
“Young people who were not given the protection of the ‘village’ to fulfil their purpose. Some future leaders, potential successful entrepreneurs ... We mourn with our city. “We need to get our house – as a city, as a province and as a country – in order. Something needs to change, and fast.”