Cape Town - Friends, family and classmates
gathered at Langa Sports Complex on Wednesday to pay tribute to three teenagers who died after eating vetkoek and polony.
Speakers described them as soft-spoken, loving best friends, and classmates told of how the teenagers affected their lives.
Though the mood was sombre and emotional at times, it was also celebratory as friends and classmates performed musical and poetic items that left those in attendance in tears.
Mourners heard how three teenagers - Athule Makonzi, 15, Khanyisa Mtamzeli, 17, and Mzingisi Gobecimele, 17 - died on August 27, a few hours after consuming the vetkoek and polony.
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Athabile Simayile, who shared the meal but only ate a slice of polony, survived to tell of what had happened.
Mzingisi’s aunt, Nomsa Tikiteni, told those in attendance how sad she was to have lost him.
Tikiteni said Mzingisi’s passion was photography.
“I must stress that it is very stressing to read leaders’ comments that our children died of drugs,” she said.
“It would have been better if it was the post-mortem that declared that our children have died because they smoked drugs, we would not have problems with that, than hearing from leaders that have no information at all.”
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Tikiteni was referring to mayoral committee member for safety, security and social services JP Smith, who in a statement last week said that post-mortems had been concluded and there was “suspicion of possible drug use or a potential other form of poisoning”.
Tikiteni said doctors at Tygerberg Hospital told them a post-mortem would be ready in the next week.
Athule’s subject teacher, Nomvuyiso Ngqobane, described him as a soft-spoken teenager.
“He was not talkative but he was doing his job to the best of his abilities. We have lost and we were still looking forward to see great things in him,” said Ngqobane.
The three boys will be buried in various towns in the Eastern Cape.