Cele: Govt, community & alcohol industry all responsible for Enyobeni tragedy
Updated | By Anastasi Mokgobu
Police Minister Bheki Cele believes all sectors of society, including government and alcohol industry, are to blame for the Enyobeni tavern tragedy.
Cele spoke at a community meeting in Gugulethu on Tuesday on the eve of a mass funeral for the 21 teens who died at the tavern in East London a week ago.
The minister said government and communities need to make an effort to keep young people away from alcohol.
“If we don’t create opportunities for the young South Africans, we might be running for a very serious risk. All of us, so the call, let’s do the best for our young people and alcohol is not the way.
“I went there as I was called, I went to mortuary, when you hear the story that 21 children have died, the story changes when you go to mortuary and you stand on them quietly sleeping there knowing very well that they will never rise again.”
Cele said nobody can completely escape blame for the deaths.
“As I reported to the president, there in the Eastern Cape, nobody should excuse themselves from a blame for the death of those children. We are all responsible for the death of those children, government , communities, councillors, the alcohol industry, we are all responsible for the death of those kids.
“It is time that we all accept, the only thing that we should make sure that it’s the outcome of that funeral is to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again. We can't as parents accept when a 13-year-old is not in the house at 4am in the morning.”
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