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Tensions ran high in the East London Magistrates Court when the Enyobeni tavern owners finally took the stand in an attempt to clear their name in their two-day trial continuation from Tuesday.
Siyakhangela Ndevu accused State Prosecutor Tango Phangalele of asking witnesses to perjure themselves on the stand so that he would be found guilty of contravening the Liquor Act.
Ndevu and his wife Vuyokazi are currently battling against charges brought by the Eastern Cape Liquor Board after underage children were found deceased in their establishment last year.
The husband-wife duo maintains they abided by all the regulations of the Liquor Act, never allowing minors to enter their outlet.
They say however, that all the state witnesses, including the Eastern Cape Liquor Board, their neighbour and an ex-employee, lied under oath while the investigating officer misled their employees into admitting guilt.
Vuyokazi said she was particularly shocked that two of her cashiers paid R2000 admissions of guilt fines for conniving to sell alcohol to children under the age of 18.
They testified that they held regular meetings informing their 10 staff members to request identity documentation whenever in doubt of a patron's age.
Ndevu instead accused the Investigating Officer Colonel Swaartbooi of misleading Xoliswa Duma and Sivuyile Gqamlana into paying the fines without explaining they were admitting guilt.
As the operations manager, Siyakhangela said Duma and Gqamlana had both asked for the money to pay from him, and he said he would rather hire an attorney and battle it out in court than pay the fine and admit to being guilty.
While he acknowledged that after his tavern was renovated it attracted a younger crowd, he said underage children were never his target market.
Meanwhile, a former- employee who manned the gates said they would turn away children, who would then complain to the Enyobeni bosses and would be allowed to enter the premises and buy liquor.
Thembisa Diko, the bouncer, during the course of the trial also testified that the tavern did not have signage restricting persons under the age of 18 from entering.
The Ndevu's say these revelations are shocking and might be the product of the consultations Prosecutor Phangalele held with his ex-employee.
On Wednesday, Advocate Phangalele took the Ndevu's through a photo album of pictures taken on the day 21 young bodies were found scattered all over the double-storey tavern.
Phangalele put it to the Ndevu's that there was no sign of there ever being age restrictions signs on the wall, while the owners maintained their signs were ripped off or stolen in the chaos that had people jumping from the balconies to save their lives.
The prosecutor further put it to Siyakhangela that from the demeanour of his responses, he did not seem to care that parents lost their children in his tavern.
In their version of events, the Ndevu's say that the 21 young people arrived at their tavern already drunk and forced their way in therefore they cannot be held liable when they did not allow them entry..
When asked by their defence attorney, Precious Daniel, what he had to say to the parents of the deceased, on the dock, Siyakhangela tendered an apology that was thereafter rejected by the parents.
He said he was a father, and that he sympathised with their pain. "What happened to them, losing their children in the manner they lost them there, is painful. It was not their will. It was not my will or the children's will that they die there."
A parent to one of the deceased, Nkululeko Ncandana, said the apology was not sincere nor truthful, but only for the eyes of the court.
"Previously [Ndevu] said it by himself that he won't apologize because he didn't kill our children. Now he is in a tight corner and he is being forced to apologise."
"That kind of apology doesn't come from himself or inside. We reject that apology totally. He is not truthful, he is just buying the eyes of the court."
The trial has been postponed to the 29th of November, while the inquest looking into how the young people died will commence in the Mdantsane Magistrates Court on Thursday for a pre-trial conference.
