The Enyobeni tavern tragedy crime scene was “seriously compromised” and exposed “major incompetence” by law enforcement in an incident that resulted in the death of 21 youngsters in Scenery Park on June 26.
This is according to David Klatzow, a UK-based forensic scientist who is also consulting in South Africa.
Over a month later, the authorities have still not publicly disclosed what killed the young people.
Klatzow told the Dispatch on Friday the Scenery Park tragedy was of national importance.
This was supposed to have been pushed ahead of the queue [at the laboratory] and given priority. If this was given priority, you can do a good toxicological analysis very quickly
“This was supposed to have been pushed ahead of the queue [at the laboratory] and given priority. If this was given priority, you can do a good toxicological analysis very quickly. This should not take you more than a week.
“You could certainly get preliminary ideas as to what was going on in an afternoon or a morning. I think the crime scene was seriously compromised from the word go. I saw photographs of the people taking liquor out of the premises. That should not have been allowed to happen,” said Klatzow.
“There have been reports of some people charged for [allegedly] stealing things from the deceased. That should have never been allowed to happen.
“That scene should have been sealed off immediately and clearly it wasn’t.
“It goes to a long history of failing to look after crime scenes. Clearly, we have major incompetence here,” said Klatzow.
Last week, police minister Bheki Cele and premier Oscar Mabuyane briefed parents and the media about the preliminary report of the toxicology results.
The briefing, at the Cambridge police station, was led by Dr Litha Matiwane, the Eastern Cape department of health’s deputy director-general for clinical services.
Matiwane said blood and gastric samples from the youngsters had been taken to a Cape Town laboratory for tests.
Matiwane said the alcohol and carbon monoxide levels found in the bodies of the youngsters were not lethal. He said they were now processing the quantitative results of methanol, which was also found in the bodies.
Matiwane could not determine the time it would take to get the final results of the toxicology testing.
Explaining the methanol, Klatzow said: “Methanol is toxic. It damages not only the liver but many things like the optic nerve and it causes blindness.
“Methanol is a very easy thing to determine in a postmortem. It takes a little bit longer to determine the quantitative results, but even that can be done automatically on modern equipment today. This would give you a readout in quantitative terms.”
Some of the families of the Enyobeni victims have slammed the authorities for taking to long to tell them what killed their children.
What a joke. They called us in Cambridge to tell us they are still investigating. All we want is for them to tell us what killed our children
“What a joke. They called us in Cambridge to tell us they are still investigating. All we want is for them to tell us what killed our children,” said Xolile Malangeni, whose daughter Esinako, 17, died at the tavern.
Khululekile Ncandana, whose son Bhongolwethu, 18, also died, said: “The wait is too long. We need to know what really happened so that action can be taken. We really need closure. This hurts.”
Provincial police spokesperson Brig Thembinkosi Kinana had not responded to the Dispatch at the time of going to print.
A retired pathologist, who asked to remain anonymous, said in an interview that the police had to come clean and reveal exactly what happened at the tavern regarding the bodies of the dead.
“If the children were left for several hours without stomach fluid and blood samples being taken, the likelihood is that methanol had been diluted. However, the same can be said of the carbon monoxide and blood-alcohol [ethanol] traces found so far.”
He said if the fluids had been taken immediately and then stored in optimal conditions before being sent to Cape Town for analysis, results should have been available within days, and certainly not nearly 40 days.
While I have no idea of the police protocol, private pathologists could have analysed the samples and got things moving right away
“While I have no idea of the police protocol, private pathologists could have analysed the samples and got things moving right away.”
He said that while he had followed the story closely, there had not, to his knowledge, been any reports on the children’s movements between noon and the time of death.
“Methanol, depending on the amount, takes up to 12 hours and sometimes quicker, to cause death or injury.”
He said questions that had to be posed included “where were the learners from noon and what did they all drink? Surely the survivors could have answered this question?
“So, who made the drink, how much was made, how much methanol was in it, what other alcohol was in it, where did the person who made it buy it? There is a chain here that surely is blindingly obvious if the correct questions are asked of the survivors”
Methanol has been killing people around the world for years as a result of “moonshine” liquor. In the US during the prohibition years in the early 1900s many hundreds of people desperate for alcohol died through drinking methanol-laced products.
In El Salvador in 2000 122 people died from liquor adulterated with methanol. It was reported to be a social cleansing campaign targeting alcoholics.
In Estonia in 2001 68 people died and 43 were left disabled after the contents of stolen methanol canisters were used in the production of bootleg liquor.
Four men have appeared in the East London magistrate’s court charged with stealing from the dead. The accused will be back in the dock on Monday for formal bail applications.
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