South Africa: Bodies of 22 msyteriously deceased teenages found in pub/nightclub.

Several news outlets, both locally and internationally, have reported this tragic story, and mine here might not be the latest or best on Google, but I chose a source that is subscription-free.

Some say it was 21 corpses, while others report it was 22, and the venue has been variously described as a "bar", a "nightclub" or a "tavern". I surmise it was an African township-style "tavern" which is often the only form of local entertainment in more impoverished areas, offering a bar, but also other entertainment like food, music and pool-tables.

The teenagers seem to have ranged from 14-17 years of age, and legally such venues have an age-restriction of 18.
Apparently the liquor and trading licenses of the venue have been withdrawn today.

Look, I'm not going to be judgemental about underage drinking, since aged about 16 as a dude I always got booze somewhere, and that was in middle-class suburbia when policing was much more enforced, and that was with a fake ID in the early 1990's.
The teens were apparently celebrating the end of the mid-year exams and the start of the school holiday.

The cause of the deaths remain currently unknown, and forensic investigations are underway.
Unsurprisingly it's suspected that something the teens ingested, drank or smoked is to blame.
However, some have suggested on talk radio and other discussion fora that perhaps faulty gas or electricity connections were at fault.

South African authorities are investigating after 22 teenagers celebrating end-of-school exams died in a mysterious incident at a nightclub. The teens' bodies were found at the Enyobeni Tavern in East London, a city in the country's Eastern Cape, with reports saying they had no visible wounds or signs of injury. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa posted on Twitter that the teen's bodies were discovered at the bar in the Scenery Park area early Sunday. "My deepest condolences go to the families of the 22 teenagers who lost their lives," Ramaphosa wrote. "This tragedy is made even more grave by its occurrence during Youth Month – a time during which we celebrate young people." Most of the victims, ages 13-17, were discovered by police lying on tables, slumped over chairs and sprawled on the floor of the club, police said. Their cause of death remained under investigation Monday, police spokesperson Col. Athlenda Mathe said.

www.usatoday.com...

Whatever the case, my condolences to the parents, relatives and wider community after this horrific event.

A clip:

If it was something ingested how would they all drink or eat it at the same time where they all died at once,it would have to be rather potent, fentanyl poisoning? but that's got to be rare in SA

I'm thinking gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning,

a reply to: putnam6

Under the booze-ban in SA several people did die from various home-brews, but these bans have long been lifted.
Maybe old bottles and stock got mixed up, or were distributed?

Although when one considers that several buildings were ill-managed, inspected and secured, and mysteriously (so far even that is under criminal proceedings) burnt down (in fact, including our Parliament in Cape Town) there might have been a gas-leak or something to that effect.

Just guessing.

During the height of the rave scene I also heard about a club in the upmarket part of Cape Town where everyone who bought "ecstasy" actually got a pill laced with Valium, and almost the entire club fell asleep, but that pill-popping night-life sub-culture was years ago.

a reply to: halfoldman

The news is reporting victim ages as 18-20. Irregardless, my guess would be alcohol poisoning from cutting potable alcohol with another form to make it go farther.

Although any alcohol can be toxic if ingested in large enough quantities, the term toxic alcohol has traditionally referred to isopropanol, methanol, and ethylene glycol.

[emedicine.medscape.com...]

its not mysterious, they od on coke laced with fentanyl, now they are covering it up, because if the truth was told, everybody would be scared to try it, and there goes the coc aine market, they are putting all sorts of nasty virus,chemicals, demons and bacteria into the coke. so stay away until Jesus says it's ok. Amen.

a reply to: nugget1

I did try to point out some details vary between news articles, but it's been widely reported here throughout the day that the venue had legalities revoked due to the victims or at least some of them being under-age for drinking.

As I wrote, I'm not going to be judgemental here about under-age drinking, most of us did it as teenagers and didn't die or deserve a death sentence for it.

But so much commentary here on radio is all about under-age drinking.
Where were the cops to stop teens drinking?
When the state resources are close to collapse, particularly in the Eastern Cape Province.

But not to accuse anybody, but I suspect a lot of underhand things went on during the booze-ban during the Covid-19 lock-downs, including cops stealing confiscated booze from warehouses and refilling those bottles with something else, reportedly tea at best, or heaven knows what else, and those batches found themselves back in circulation.
afriforum.co.za...

One possibility, in which case I wonder if we'll ever hear the true story.

originally posted by: GeneralTsar1
its not mysterious, they od on coke laced with fentanyl, now they are covering it up, because if the truth was told, everybody would be scared to try it, and there goes the coc aine market, they are putting all sorts of nasty virus,chemicals, demons and bacteria into the coke. so stay away until Jesus says it's ok. Amen.

Mass deaths from consuming illegal liquor certainly do occur:

economictimes.indiatimes.com...

South Africa certainly had illegal liquor traditions (not referring to tribal beers, which are legal) like "skokiaan" (a Zulu word) or "mampoer" (Afrikaner moonshine).

Then post-1994 we also had industrial alcohol that found itself onto the shelves of even suburban bottle-stores, although there were no mass-deaths and the authorities were swift to respond.
Possibly because seasoned adult drinkers immediately noticed the difference in taste and effect.

Even with the booze lock-down cases of mass alcohol poisonings were relatively rare, possibly because conventionally brewed alcohol was still widely available on the black-market, although at inflated prices.
Others resorted to making pineapple beer with common kitchen ingredients.
Although often sickening in taste, and causing nauseating hangovers, it hardly was strong enough to prove fatal.
By July 2021 (during alcohol lock-down) the death-toll related to illegal breweries using methyl-alcohol was numbered at 19, seemingly mostly also in the Eastern Cape.
www.news24.com...

So this is my main suspicion, either something the teens had concocted themselves or cheaply purchased from somebody, or something that found its way into the booze supply due to corruption.

Although one would hope that unlike historic Alcohol Prohibition in the US, none of this was deliberate:
www.usatoday.com...

a reply to: halfoldman

I wonder if it was a suicide cult. Those still exist even though they haven't been active in awhile. That would probably explain what was going on more then anything else. Unless it was something like a homemade manufactured moonshine.. or something similiar which can kill a person if not brewed right.

My guess is suicide cult over the other reasons. As most "kids" would be smashed before ever coming close to a death limit on that large of a scale. The fact that every single one of them died rules out 'alcohol' as a sole cause. Even if 1 kid drank a huge amount to literally die from it, the others would of started to get sick way before that happened. Alcohol toxicity can happen to anyone, but will NEVER happen to EVERYONE at once - as if this is the case we'd see this type of thing on a regular basis in bars.

The teens' bodies were found at the Enyobeni Tavern in East London,

This means that the owner of said tavern/bar was not there and they were found 'after said event occured'. Or at the very least was 'in on it'. He/she would be suspect 1, or to see if their kid is included in the numbers. This could easily be a sucidie cult case where if 'no adult' is dead with the children and the owner obviously didn't call the police while having the bar open. Means that the entire death was a setup, it was planned.

Most of the victims, ages 13-17, were discovered by police lying on tables, slumped over chairs and sprawled on the floor of the club, police said.

They were "discovered by police", so chances are the owner of the club/tavern was involved and left after they had ingested whatever poison killed them. Where a bunch of kids wouldn't really notice if they were "partying". So this is either a mass murder case, or a suicide cult. Either one looks bad, especially since no adults have been confirmed at the scene.

Another thing I want to point out, is the chances of it being 'drugs' is also small. Because every person has its own tolerance, again the chances of EVERYONE dying at once is huge when not everyone will take the same dose or same amount as the next person. So that rules out drugs, while there *might* be drugs in their system from "Partying" most of those kids should still be alive based on statistics alone.

I just saw, this South African vlogger also refers to rumors that some kind of gaseous substance may have been sprayed inside or near the club, presumably even to subdue or evict the revelers.

Of course not proven at this stage, and the first I hear of it, but here the clip:

a reply to: halfoldman

If it is gas, chances are it's an attack aka mass murder. Did you see that there is another mass 'gas' death. I'm still betting suicide pact though, as i'm not seeing anything that is actually linking the two.

shame. i'm sorry for them and families.

in other news,

40 illegal migrants found dead in a truck in texas.

a reply to: BlackArrow

tainted 'ecstacy' or MDMA... the 'social gathering' almost dictates synthetic/boutique clubs / drugs

Still no answers from authorities, although now suspected it may have been gas (carbon monoxide) from electricity generators.

www.news24.com...

This is terrible and as many have done here, I join in expressing condolences to the families

This should be easy to figure out once the autopsies are done and that should end all this speculation.

Not that it would be the first "mysterious death" of carbon monoxide poisoning recently.

People having to live increasingly off the grid and doing unprofessional home-improvements, or getting unqualified people.

www.2oceansvibe.com...

a reply to: halfoldman

My bet is on carbon monoxide, in a poorly ventilated space. Carbon monoxide really is the silent killer, and nobody seems to take it particularly seriously.

Tear gas or pepper spray used at South African nightclub when teenagers died, eyewitness says
"There was no way out," an eyewitness told ABC News.


link

PRETORIA and LONDON -- Tear gas or pepper spray was used on patrons at a popular nightclub in South Africa when more than a dozen teenagers mysteriously died there, an eyewitness told ABC News.

Sibongile Mtsewu, 22, said he was ordering drinks at the crowded Enyobeni Tavern near the South African city of East London over the weekend, when suddenly the doors were closed and some type of chemical agent was released into the air.

"There was no way out," Mtsewu, who lives nearby, told ABC News in a telephone interview Thursday. "There was no chance to breathe."Mtsewu said he passed out after inhaling the substance. He recalled being surrounded by bodies when his brother woke him up some time later.

"The tear gas suffocated many people," he told ABC News. "That's why people died."

MORE: Mystery remains over deaths of 21 teenagers at South African nightclub
Mtsewu said one of his legs was injured and he has pains in his body from the incident.

The South African Police Service has declined to comment on possible causes of deaths, citing the ongoing probe.

If it was tear gas or pepper spray it didn't get in there by itself, a human agency had to do that.

a reply to: peaceinoutz

Well yeah, and each day passes, one wonders why is it all taking so long for a clear answer?