4 DIE AFTER DRINKING MANKANJANE

MANZINI - At least four residents of Madonsa have died after drinking mankanjane.

The community is calling upon the royal kraal to take action against the illegal homemade brew. Mankanjane, which is also known as ‘dontonto’, is an illegally produced alcoholic beverage that is transparent in colour, with a smell of methylated spirit. The intoxicating drink is made from harmful ingredients and then mixed with maize and sugar cane.
It is available in some drinking spots in Eswatini and has been linked with violent behaviour and recently, deaths. The recent incident happened at Madonsa, under the Manzini North Constituency, which is represented by Sifiso Mashayinkonjane Nhlengetfwa in Parliament. The community, which comprises of a majority of people working in the retail sector, is also affected by urban poverty, given that 35.6 per cent of the population is unemployed in the country.

Resort

Their plight has propelled some of the unemployed to resort to collecting scrap material and selling it in town, which is about seven kilometres away. They are barely able to support their livelihoods with the little money they get.  Among those who died was a man in his 20s. He was found dead after drinking the illegal brew. According to one of the community members, who lost a brother recently, he tried several times to warn his brother about the dangers of drinking ‘dontonto’.  He said this was after learning that some community members had died, purportedly due to the illegal brew.

He said most of the people who drank this illegal beverage were unemployed community members, who survived by making money in various ways. He said usually, they wake up early at around 5am and 6am, and their first stop is the shebeens and proceed to their various ventures to make some money. “When people go to work between 6am and 7am, they find them already drinking the toxic brew at the shebeens,” he said. He said their worry as a community was that those who run the shebeens do not care about the effects of the brew on their customers. “The money they get from this business is the same as blood money,” he said. He said the behaviour of the imbibers of this brew suggests that it is toxic, because sometimes they find them sleeping along the road and urinated on themselves. Despite that, he said they continue to drink it week in and week out.  

Shebeens

This incident is reportedly not isolated and as such, community police members have been tasked with cracking down on unlicensed shebeens selling the illegal alcoholic beverage.  The call for action within the community is said to have followed a concern by certain community members, who reportedly noted a hike in the deaths within the community among those who imbibed the brew. The deaths are said to have happened on separate occasions between the past few months and now. According to one of the concerned community members of Madonsa, this is not the first time they recorded deaths linked to the illegal beverage as in 2016 and 2017, they had similar cases. As such, he said all shebeens, which sold the homemade brew, were banned from selling it.

He said during the first few months of the year, they learnt that about four shebeens were selling the traditional brew again and already, there were some deaths linked to it. He said recently, some patrons of one of the shebeens which sell mankanjane had died. He said the boy, who was seen drinking the alcoholic beverage in question during the day, was found dead in his house the following morning. He alleged that some women fell sick and subsequently died a few days later. According to the source, most of the people go to the shebeens early in the morning, before eating proper food and after imbibing it, they do not feel hungry, which means that it makes them lose appetite. 

He said some of them wake up as early as 5am and go to the shebeens. He stated that a majority of them preferred this illegal brew over the conventional alcoholic beverages because it is cheaper. He said a 500ml of the brew cost about E6. Again, he said what they noted was that it was easier to get dontonto on credit, unlike other alcoholic beverages. This made them prefer the drink as a cheap alternative to keep them busy and temporarily forget their problems. Again, the community member said the imbibers of dontonto were seemingly also not cautious of the amount of money to be spent in hospital due to health effects resulting from consuming the brew.  “All they care about is getting drunk instantly,” he said.

Consumption

Meanwhile, one of the community members, Calvin Kunene, who confirmed the concern over the sale and consumption of dontonto in the area said the issue had been raised during the community meetings held at Mnyenyweni Royal Kraal.  He said it was raised by concerned community members, some of whom have lost their loved ones and blamed the deaths on the illegal brew.

“This issue is serious because young men and women have been turned to elderly men and women. I tell you, since these people do not eat when drinking this illegal alcoholic beverage, their appearance changes within two to three months. “They become skinny and their hair looks like they have applied hair chemicals. These people are dying and I know about four whose deaths are linked to dontonto brew,” the community police member said. He said after the matter was raised during their meetings, a resolution was taken that as community police members, working together with the resident, they should crack down on the shebeens and close them.  However, he said their efforts have hit a snag so far as the shebeen operators were aware of the exercise and they were always on the alert. He said they needed more backing from the royal kraal in order for the exercise to be successful and prevent further deaths.

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