05 Jun 2020 Seven dead after drinking toxic homemade booze

Seven people from a Cape Town township have died after drinking homemade alcohol, while 13 others were hospitalised, some in a critical condition, after they consumed the brew that was tainted with methanol. 

The tragedy unfolded on Sunday 31 May, a day before the ban on liquor sales was lifted under lockdown Level 3.

The latest death was recorded on Wednesday June 3. 

The men, all from Masiphumelele in Fishhoek, had attended a party where the brew was served. 

Senai Rungano, 33, who is eight months’ pregnant, lost her husband Tapera. “I thought he was his usual drunk self but when I tried to give him food, he had no appetite,” she said.

“On Monday morning I thought it was a hangover, he started vomiting and had hot flashes.” 

The mother of two says she was angry and shouted at her husband to get ready for work, but he was restless and didn’t recognise her.

Tapera was rushed to False Bay Hospital where he died while waiting to be transferred to Groote Schuur hospital. 

 “I am heavily pregnant with two kids and I do not work. I am renting here, where will I get the money now that he is gone?” asked the devastated widow.

The supplier of the booze is nowhere to be found and his girlfriend Triza Jere, 26, says the bottles used for the home-made brew were marked “flammable acid”. 

“I did not taste it nor smell it because I hate alcohol,” she told the Daily Voice. 

“They could not drink it without mixing it with Coke or juice. 

“My boyfriend also drank it and I do not know whether he died or is sick in hospital.” 

Natalie Watlington, the Health Communications Officer for Southern Western Sub-structures, confirmed: “Twenty cases of methanol poisoning were admitted to False Bay Hospital, of which seven patients have passed away. Five of the patients have been transferred either to Victoria or Groote Schuur Hospital. 

“The cause of methanol poisoning was due to the consumption of alcohol tainted with methanol.”

People sometimes use methanol as a substitute for alcohol but this is dangerous and harmful to humans.

Methanol is used to create fuel, solvents and antifreeze. There have been multiple recent reports of similar poisonings in Mexico, Iran, Tunisia and Bangladesh.

Source: www.iol.co.za