EAST LONDON, South Africa (AP) — The death of 21 teenagers in a nightclub tragedy is a crime and South African authorities must step up measures to prevent the illegal sale of alcohol to youth, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Wednesday.
“We still don’t know exactly what killed our children. But we know that the law was broken that night and probably many nights before that,” Ramaphosa told more than a thousand mourners at the funeral in east London for the young people who died in a tavern nearly two weeks ago.
“We are losing our future generation to the scourge of underage drinking,” the president said, calling on police to determine the exact cause of their deaths and calling on authorities to stop youths being allowed into bars.
“The blame must be laid at the feet of those who are cashing in on the dreams and lives of young people in South Africa by breaking the law and selling them alcohol,” he said.
Two rows of coffins in front of Ramaphosa symbolized the young lives lost.
“Today we shed bitter tears for the 21 young people who died in this tragedy,” Ramaphosa said. “These children should not have died. Their deaths could have been prevented if the law had been followed.
Funeral hymns were sung by a large choir as the 19 coffins were carried into a large tent where the service was held in the Scenery Park district of East London. Two families held private funerals and service organizers said the caskets on display were empty, in keeping with some families’ wishes. The children are to be buried in different cemeteries later on Wednesday and in the coming days, they said.
The tent was filled to capacity, so many mourners sat outside.
The cause of death of the children, one aged 13, whose bodies were found at the Enyobeni Tavern, is not yet known. They were under the legal drinking age of 18 in South Africa, officials said. Pathologists are investigating the cause of death from blood samples. A stampede has been ruled out as the victims’ bodies did not show any serious injuries, police said.
Ramaphosa delivered the eulogy while facing several challenges, including South Africa’s ongoing power outages, widespread corruption allegations and questions about large sums of money reportedly found hidden in furniture on his own game farm.
“I’ve heard some say I have no business coming here to Scenery Park. Some said I had bigger issues to deal with,” Ramaphosa told the crowd. “But I ask them what is more important in this country and on this earth than the lives of our children?”
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