The parents of the Enyobeni tavern tragedy victims are to form a nonprofit organisation which, among other work, will advocate against the use of drugs and alcohol by young people.
The update on the formation of the NPO, for which the parents have already sent paperwork to the department of social development for registration, was announced by the parents’ task team at a meeting held in Nompumelelo, Beacon Bay, on Sunday.
The NPO will be called The Scenery Park 21.
Though the NPO will have its dedicated leadership structure, all the parents of the 21 youngsters who died at the Scenery Park tavern on June 26 will form part of it.
One of the parent leaders, Khululekile Ncandana, whose son Bhongolwethu, 18, died in the tragedy, said part of the NPO’s work would be to teach young people about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
“When the NPO has been put in place, we will be visible to communities telling the youth to stay away from drugs and alcohol.
“By doing this, the youth in our communities will be able to focus on their future and development, and that is what we want to see.”
Ncandana said they would work with young people from different communities in driving their message home.
“Our plans are that the NPO must start operating as soon we get approval from the authorities.
“In terms of our initial planning, the NPO’s focus will be on the Buffalo City Metro area, but it is also part of our plan to reach out to other regions in the province.”
Xolile Malangeni, whose daughter Esinako, 17, died in the tavern, said the decision to form the NPO was part of their commitment to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
“We want our young people to know that drinking alcohol or doing drugs has serious consequences in life.
“We want to be a helping hand for the young people out there. The idea is to help communities find ways of dealing with their problems.
“There are so many bad things going on in our communities and these have the potential to influence how young people take decisions.
“If we don’t assist young people in taking the right decisions now, the chances are no-one is going to help them.”
Ncandana said the NPO would also be at the forefront of organising annual commemorations of the deaths of their children.
“We will work towards erecting a monument with all the names of our children.”
At Sunday’s meeting, the parents also discussed their unhappiness with how the provincial government had communicated the final toxicology results to them. They said they felt they had not been treated with dignity.
On September 1, parents were called to a meeting at the district health offices in West Bank where they were told their children had died of suffocation.
The department refused to hand the detailed and documented analysis of what led to youngsters’ deaths to the parents.
Instead, the department advised parents to follow the legal route if they wanted access to the detailed report.
Last week, the parents wrote to the Eastern Cape department of health and gave it until close of business on Monday to provide them with the detailed toxicology report.
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