All government’s red tape means nothing if children are still dying

You know what’s annoying about South African legalities? It’s how much time and money it costs to ensure you do everything by the book and spend tons ensuring you’re compliant.

Many times, it may seem arbitrary, but you still do it because you’re a law-abiding citizen. That’s all dandy until you find out that the oke next door is saving a mint by ignoring any compliance stuff and simply getting away with it.

So, in the latest “only in South Africa” story, some under-aged kids died under mysterious circumstances in a tavern.

Also Read: Enyobeni tavern tragedy is a sign of the times

Sure, it seems like something that could happen anywhere in the world. You can even go back to 2004 when Billboard’s #11 hit of the year opened with the lines, “Teen drinking is very bad. Yo I got a fake ID though.”

What makes this uniquely South African is that we’ve since found out that the building may have been illegally built, the plans probably weren’t approved, the tavern found itself in a zoned residential area, and it often violated trading hours.

Also Read: Enyobeni Tavern: Saps investigating liquor legislation compliance

You’d think that with all the hoops one would have to jump through to obtain a liquor licence, this could all have been picked up prior to the past week’s tragedy.

But no. Here in the republic of do as little as possible and make sure you have somebody else to blame, there’s no need to be proactive. That would involve things like site inspections and report writing.

Y’know the boring stuff that residents tend to pay rates to municipalities to do? The things that municipalities seemingly can’t afford to do after they’ve cleared the most important line item in their budgets: their own salaries.

Also Read: SA’s local municipalities need a total overhaul

I’d love to spend pen and ink unveiling the drinking culture that’s developed throughout our schools. I was guilty of it too as a youth. I’m pretty sure we all were to some extent.

However, our political and service delivery culture is the one that is in serious need of emergency care.

I couldn’t care less if some kids are getting drunk. That’s not up to me. Let their parents or guardians deal with them. We can’t pretend like this is the first time an underaged pens down party has ever taken place.

Equally, we cannot pretend like this tavern violating laws is a once off situation. Sure, I don’t want kids to die in preventable situations, but it’s a bit late to start the investigation into this tavern now.

What’s also an issue is the message it sends out to those who were already toeing the line and obeying the law – Just don’t get caught.

Surely, other taverns reading this news will come to realise that the only reason these dudes are in trouble is because of a tragedy, and so if one can avoid a tragedy, then one won’t get caught and therefore one can practically skirt the law.

This sounds reasonable until you realise that the macro effect is going to be more tragedy as safety standards drop due to this realisation.

It should not take the death of children for any authority to question whether the institutions in its jurisdiction are safe for the community. It should not take a national news story for a local government to pull up its socks and do its job.

It certainly should not take half a brain to know that a widespread advertisement for a “pens down” party at a time when schools are closing, means that underage drinking is going to take place, and it may be a good idea to send some cops in.

This preventable tragedy should come as absolutely no surprise.

Also Read: Govt called to protect youth by implementing stricter alcohol regulations

We know South Africa has a culture of underage drinking. We know that there are strong incentives to skirt the law and try make money, especially following lockdown when it comes to the liquor trade.

It’s just far too convenient and ridiculous to accept any response from the local authority other than, “we should have known.”

And if they should have known, why did this still happen?