The Buffalo City metro’s (BCM) court application to have the infamous Enyobeni tavern demolished has succeeded, with the court giving the owners three months to completely dismantle the structure where 21 youngsters died in June 2022.
However, the victims’ parents want the structure kept intact, at least until the inquest into the deaths of their children is completed.
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane on Tuesday welcomed the court decision, saying the property was a “symbol of darkness” and a “place of a sad story where parents cry every time they pass that place”.
That place represents terrible scenes where many lives were lost. It’s forever a crime scene
— Oscar Mabuyane, Eastern Cape premier
“That place represents terrible scenes where many lives were lost. It’s forever a crime scene,” Mabuyane said.
The Bhisho high court, sitting in East London, has ordered Enyobeni tavern owners Siyakhangela Ndevu and his wife Vuyokazi, completely demolish their infamous two-storey structure in Scenery Park.
This comes after a court application by BCM after the tavern owners had apparently violated the metro’s land use management scheme regulations and zoning bylaws by constructing a tavern for informal alcohol retail on a plot zoned residential.
Recently, acting high court judge Thembelani Nkele found the tavern owners to have violated metro regulations and bylaws. He ordered they demolish the tavern within the next 90 days, meaning by January 15 next year all traces of the structure should be history.
Nkele declared as unlawful the Ndevus’ construction of the building without proper approval from BCM, their use of the property for informal alcohol retail operations, and their use of the property without an approved occupancy certificate from the metro.
He said should the owners fail to adhere to the court order, “the sheriff or his or her deputy is authorised to take all necessary and reasonable steps, at the cost of the [owners], to demolish the building”.
The couple has also been ordered to “remove, cart away and discard all such building material and rubble as a result of the demolition”.
Nkele further interdicted them from selling or letting the property to any third party or entity until the demolition orders had been complied with.
However, the demolition order, though welcomed in some quarters, has been met with scepticism by some of the affected parents, who said demolishing the property before the court inquest is complete would be tantamount to destroying crucial evidence.
The inquest is set to resume at the Mdantsane magistrate’s court on October 28.
If that place is demolished now, a lot of critical information might be destroyed with it, and that could be detrimental to our cause to find justice
— Khululekile Ncandana, father of one of the victims
The government attributed the victims’ deaths to suffocation, which did not satisfy the families. Furious parents of the young victims, the youngest aged 13, are in the dark about what killed them, with some parents saying justice delayed is justice denied.
Khululekile Ncandana, whose 18-year-old son Bhongolwethu was among the victims, said on Tuesday that even though the families welcomed the demolition order, they were worried if the structure was demolished before the inquest was complete, it might jeopardise s critical evidence needed by the court to make its determination.
“When BCM made the application, we wrote to them as the families, saying we do not have a problem with such application, but we requested it be withheld until after the inquest has been completed,” Ncandana said.
“This is because we believe all those involved in the inquest, including the prosecutor and magistrate, would want to go and view the place before any determination is made by the court. If that place is demolished now, a lot of critical information might be destroyed with it, and that could be detrimental to our cause to find justice.”
He said an application would be made by their legal representative when the inquest resumed on Monday for the implementation of the Nkele judgment to be halted until after the inquest had been wrapped up.
Ntombizonke Mgangala, whose 17-year-old niece Sinothando Mgangala died at the tavern, said she was not happy the property would be demolished within the next three months, saying this “will not be a solution”.
“We heard about the demolition order through our lawyer, but we are not happy about such a court order. That place is a crime scene, and destroying it now, before the inquest is completed, will be tantamount to destroying evidence.
“I feel that the place should not be demolished but instead preserved and used as a centre to develop young children to teach them about the dangers of alcohol abuse,” she said.
Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya welcomed the court ruling. “We will study the order thoroughly so it will be interpreted correctly and implemented accordingly,” he said.
The inquest is scheduled to sit for a week from Monday. It was postponed two months ago after the testimony of former bouncer Thembisa Diko, who had painted a picture to the court of how jam-packed the tavern was.
The Dispatch understands an inspection in loco could be done before the end of next week.
Additional reporting by Ziyanda Zweni
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