Four days after a Gqeberha man died at a nightclub, police have changed a murder investigation to an inquest, with the exact cause of death still unknown despite a postmortem having been performed.
The case has continued to spark outrage among community members, who are calling for the northern areas establishment to be shut down permanently.
Niellen Afrikander, 34, was declared dead in the early hours of Sunday.
His body was discovered outside the R Bar nightclub in Adams Street, Salsoneville.
Earlier that night, he had allegedly been involved in an altercation inside the club.
Police said at the time that when officers arrived at the scene, Afrikander was found lying at the bottom of a flight of steps.
He had no visible injuries.
And though the SAPS had initially opened up a murder investigation, police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge said on Wednesday afternoon that a postmortem had been performed and no cause of death could be deducted “from the physical evidence of the body”.
“Further histology analysis needs to be done,” Beetge said.
“The murder case was then changed to an inquest pending the outcome of the histology report.”
As the investigation unfolds and speculation around Afrikander’s death continues to grow, anger is mounting in the northern areas as calls rise for the permanent closure of the R Bar.
By Tuesday night, grief and outrage spilled onto the streets as about 150 residents gathered outside the venue for a candlelight vigil in memory of Afrikander.
R Bar management made contact with The Herald on Wednesday afternoon, requesting that no further queries be made in relation to the matter and indicating that the establishment would not comment further on the incident.
Earlier, in a post on Facebook, the R Bar management and staff had expressed their condolences to the family.
Meanwhile, a petition demanding the bar’s closure has since gained traction and was set to be handed over to the police on Thursday.
In it, residents are demanding accountability.
Community patroller Anita Koopman Smith addressed the crowd on Tuesday night, saying the community was sick of crime in Salsoneville.
“We stand here with broken hearts,” Smith said.
“For too long we have been forced to stand at an open grave every Saturday to bury our young ones.
“We expect our children to bury us but now we are burying our children and it is not right.
“We have not come here to fight, we are here with broken hearts and we are here to share the pain with the family.”
Smith said that when a young person was lost, the whole community suffered.
“We have [come here] to ask the owner of the building to please shut this place down.
“We [refuse] to lose another person.
“We [want] answers.
“This is not just another statistic; this is a mother’s child, a brother, an uncle.
“We can’t allow this to continue in our community.”
Smith said they lived in fear of being raped, attacked or killed, even when walking to the grocery store at night.
“I am disabled today because I was stabbed in the street here in this park [a few years ago].
“I am advocating here for people who don’t have the courage.
“Whenever there is a car accident nearby there is footage available, but there is [allegedly] no footage available of what happened to Niellen.
“Niellen will not be another number.
“We will show you what we can do as a community.”
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said Afrikander was loved by the Salsoneville and Sanctor communities.
“Niellen was one of us.
“He was a good guy and we all knew him.
“My heart is sore.
“When I saw his body lying here on Sunday morning and his mother looking at him, my heart tore into pieces.
“We can’t leave it like this because tomorrow there might be another body.”
Speaking from the family home on Wednesday, Afrikander’s grieving mother, Tessa, spoke highly of her son and how he was loved by his community.
“Niellen was such a loving person,” she said.
“He was my first-born and he was an amazing child.
“He always went the extra mile for me, his family and his community.
“He was friends with everyone in the community.”
She said everyone had only ever had good things to say about him.
“He helped build an outdoor gym in the park here and he was loved by all the kids in the neighbourhood.
“I am going to miss him so much.
“Everyone is heartbroken but our lives are in the Lord’s hands and I don’t need to worry about where he is now.
“What is done is done.
“I will trust the Lord and ask him to make me strong.”
Afrikander’s younger sister, Chloe, 19, said her brother would go to the ends of the earth for her.
“He was my big brother — in age and size.
“He was a big man and he looked after me.
“We were very close and we loved each other dearly.”
She said he would get up in the middle of the night to help someone if they called him.
“That was the kind of person he was.
“If I ever needed something, I could always go to him.
“He was someone I could lean on, he was someone the whole family could lean on ... we still need him.”
Chloe broke down as she said: “I need him now.”
Residents said they were collecting more signatures for the petition which they planned to hand over on Thursday.
“We already have over 100 signatures but not everyone could come to the vigil [on Tuesday] night.”
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