File
Eastern Cape authorities are still no closer to determining the cause of death at this stage of the 21 young people who died mysteriously at the Enyobeni Tavern in East London last month.
Officials, including the Police Minister, Bheki Cele, and Eastern Cape Premier, Lubabalo Mabuyane, met the families on Tuesday to report back on the preliminary findings.
Delivering the report, Dr Litha Matiwane, the Deputy Director General for Clinal Services at the Department of Health, highlighted three findings in the blood results.
He said blood alcohol levels among the deceased ranged from 0.05g to 0.26 grams per 100 ml, which in itself is not conclusive of lethal toxicology. "So, at this point in time, we can say that it might not have been the final cause of death."
Dr Matiwane said the blood results also confirmed the presence of carbon monoxide, ranging from 3.3% to 21% of saturation of hemoglobin, adding that level levels would be considered above 50%. "Again the understanding is that this might not be the final cause of death," he said.
He said the third finding was that of methanol in the blood of all 21 deceased. However, progressive analysis was still being undertaken on the levels of methanol and whether it was lethal enough to cause death.
"In summary, we have now moved from a point where we said we did exclude the stampede, but now we do have initial results from the toxicology lab. However, at this point in time there is no conclusive result that says this was the lethal concoction that we are dealing with," Dr Matiwane concluded.
