Enyobeni tavern

Brian Mapasa has shared his first-hand accoutn of what transpired at the Eyobeni tavern on Sunday morning.
Image via Twitter
@brian_mapasa

‘Almost lost my life’: Enyobeni artist shares clip ‘minutes before’ [watch]

‘People suffocated and started collapsing’: An artist performing at the Enyobeni tavern during the tragedy has shared his first-hand account.

Enyobeni tavern

Brian Mapasa has shared his first-hand accoutn of what transpired at the Eyobeni tavern on Sunday morning.
Image via Twitter
@brian_mapasa

An Eastern Cape rapper who performed on stage at the Enyobeni tavern has shared footage of what transpired “minutes” before 21 children lost their lives.

Brian Mapasa shared a first-hand account of what he experienced during the tragic incident on his social media accounts. On Sunday morning, 12 boys and nine girls – all under the age of 17 – died under mysterious circumstances at the popular East London nightspot.

ALSO READ: ‘Why are kids in taverns?’: Celebs outraged by Enyobeni tavern tragedy

ENYOBENI ARTIST: ‘WE WERE STUCK WITH NO AIR’

In a clip posted on Twitter, the 23-year-old revealed he was performing for a crowd “minutes” before the attack.

“Minutes before I almost lost my life at  Enyobeni Tavern”, he said in a tweet.

Brian then revealed in a Facebook post that revellers began “suffocating and collapsing” after allegedly being pepper-sprayed.

He shared: “People suffocated and started collapsing. It was very hard to breathe in that small space by the door with pepper spray even.  I got pulled out losing my breath. Enyobeni is not having enough security by the door, imagine two people stopping 100s of people pushing back and forth. Some wanted to come in by force while others wanted to get out ASAP due to pepper spray”.

Enyobeni
An artist booked to perform at the Enyobeni tavern in Eastern Cape has shared his experience. Image via Facebook

He added on Twitter: “Because a lot of people died people are expecting some major reason for the deaths. People died cause they couldn’t breathe. We were stuck at one place with no air coming just breathing in pepper spray. Some even fell down and never got back up just got stepped on”.

Brian revealed that he escaped the incident with “minor injuries”.

‘IT COULD BE SECURITY OR MANAGERS

Responding to curious tweeps, Brian tweeted that he believed Enyobeni staff were to blame for pepper-spraying the crowd.

He tweeted: “I am thinking it could be the security or managers because we get searched before we enter for weapons. Unless in their defence they say it was someone from the outside who sprayed . There were a lot of people blocking the door”.

Brian also claimed that the tavern regularly did this to force the crowd out at the closing time.

He added: “They didn’t spray directly to us they sprayed on top of us hoping it’ll put pressure on us to move out not knowing the people coming in are blocking us. Eventually, some kids fell down which made it even harder to move, and we were stuck there for close to an hour of breathing [pepper] spray”.