Former president Nelson Mandela on Saturday visited the survivors of last month’s nightclub stampede and the families of the 13 schoolchildren killed in the tragedy. The retired president pledged an undiclosed amount of money towards a fund for the victims of the disaster, in the Indian residential suburb of Chatsworth in the east coast city of Durban. He also laid a wreath at a shrine at the Throb nightclub in honour of the victims.
On March 24, teargas was released inside the club, packed with 800 schoolchildren celebrating the end of term, causing the stampede. Thirteen schoolchildren were killed and about 150 others injured. Three men attached to a rival nightclub are in police custody in connection with the incident. Mandela said he was visiting the Chatsworth community to pay his condolences because he was out of the country at the time of the funerals of the children. The 81-year-old former president returned earlier on Saturday from Burundi where he met top political and military leaders in his capacity as mediator in peace talks to end the seven-year civil war in the tiny country.