During June 2022, in a month meant for commemoration of the sacrifices and activism of the youth of the 1976 Soweto uprisings and reflection on the role of the youth in shaping the future of SA, teenagers were found dead in the Enyobeni tavern in the Eastern Cape.
The teenagers were celebrating the beginning of a school holiday in a tavern that broke the law by selling alcohol to minor children. Twenty-one young people dead again in June, this time not killed by a regime that sought to oppress black youth but a dysfunctional society not committed to helping keep youth and children out of harm's way. The consequences of a society in crisis and decay are showing and it is incumbent on all of us to take stock of what we need to do to reverse it.
Could the Enyobeni tavern tragedy been avoided? In a Twitter Space event hosted by Rivonia Circle on Sunday night, author and safety activist Ziyanda Stuurman opened a discussion on crime by reflecting on this question. Stuurman, author of Can we be Safe? The future of policing in South Africa, argues that what happened to those 21 teenagers is a result of engineered social dysfunction, not merely social disorder.
Our society is not broken, it has and continues to be intentionally designed to entrench racism, class inequalities and deny access to dignity and wellbeing to the majority of its people. Apartheid’s spatial planning created townships that were never intended for people to live full and meaningful lives with thriving businesses, open green spaces, leisure activities and community connection.
The lack of good education facilities and little to no recreational facilities means the choices youth have for spaces to connect with each other in are often between places selling cheap alcohol and rundown community halls.
The Enyobeni 21 highlights three social crises SA must address. First, youth development. Though many people recognise that youth are bearing the brunt of our social and economic crises, much of our response to youth development is either too narrowly focused on jobs as a panacea or too broadly focused on a wide range of interventions that keep youth temporarily engaged.
What these approaches often lack is a clear sense of what the purpose and picture of success is. Young people do not only need jobs or activities, they need support to become the best individuals and members of their societies possible.
Youth is a time of vulnerability and uncertainty. It’s a time of transition and change. What young people need to support their transitions into adulthood is a range of possibilities of what success is, and a values compass that will help them make good decisions. They need mentorship, not judgment, and an enabling environment.
Second, is the parenting crisis. This generation of youth are being raised by parents whose lives are in many ways characterised by vulnerability and uncertainty as well. In a context of mass unemployment, high costs of living and high rates of crime, parents of teenagers also have very little security. Many do not have the stability of a consistent income. Many have low-paying jobs that require them to be out of their homes for many hours of the day and night.
Many people raising children today have themselves not transitioned into successful adulthood for both structural and interpersonal reasons. Many parents define successful parenting by their ability to get the basics right: food, shelter and education. Being present to actively guide, oversee and support children socially and emotionally are a luxury many cannot afford. This, however, means that children in resource-poor and marginalised communities are not afforded the benefit of parents who can ensure their safety.
Finally, we have a safety crisis. We live in a country where our regard for each other’s physical safety is at an all-time low. Beyond high rates of murder, rape or theft, our disregard for laws as simple as a liquor licence means that we do things that put other people in danger if it means we will enrich ourselves. This is not only a law enforcement problem, it is a values problem. It signifies that we have started to value possessions over people to the point that it costs lives en masse.
We could blame the Enyobeni tavern incident on the owners, the parents, the young people or the community, but ultimately this incident reflects on all who make up SA society.
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