• Area's youth urged to follow a better example after 15 arrests were made at a house party over the weekend. 
• The video capturing the arrests went viral on social media and shocked the community. 
• Ward councillor Ntombekhaya Ntshebe is supporting the re-banning of alcohol proposed by Premier Oscar Mabuyane. 

Eastern Cape police shut down a house party and arrested 15 young people, including six minors, for unlawful gathering in King William's Town over the weekend.

The minors were released on a warning, while the nine adults were fined of R2 000 before their release.

Those arrested were between 15 and 23 years old.

The adults are expected to appear in court on 6 October, said police spokesperson Colonel Sibongile Soci.

The group were charged for unlawful gathering under the Disaster Management Act.

The incident took place at a Clubview suburb house at 19:30 on Saturday.

The arrest was captured in a viral video.

In the video, police officers could be heard informing others that more of the young revellers were hiding inside wardrobes.

The community made headlines for all the right reasons last year when they organised weekend-long celebrations for season 15 SA Idols winning contestant Luyolo Yiba, who hails from the area. 

On Tuesday, Buffalo City Metro Ward 37 councillor Ntombekhaya Ntshebe said residents supported Premier Oscar Mabuyane's call for a re-banning of the sale of alcohol.

"This disturbing news has left the community in shock. We are disappointed by the behaviour of our children. This is disappointing, during Luyolo Yiba's celebration last year, we spoke and encouraged the youth in that area, motivating them to stay away from drugs and alcohol. Moreover, they do this at a time where we are fighting against this pandemic, where social distancing is strongly encouraged. As the community we support the call by the EC Premier to ban alcohol."

Ntshebe said once gatherings are permitted, the young people in the area would be called and addressed about the incident.

"This occurrence is unfortunate because we can't have a gathering in the community where we can address this behaviour directly to the kids, however should we get to an alert level that allows gatherings we will have an outreach programme and educate our children once more."

Chairperson of the Clubview Residents Association Thembalethu Ngalwana said the young partygoers laughed at them when they ordered them to end the party.

"It was when we arrived when we saw the bad atmosphere of our kids with glasses, loud music with speakers outside the house. When we arrived there, we said all those who are not staying there must go to their homes but it was so unfortunate because we were just a laughing stock to them, and only a few heeded our call."

Ngalwana said police arrived in a few minutes and dealt with the situation.

"What we've noticed is that our kids don't fear this pandemic as we do. We felt sorry for the parents of those kids as there is no normal parent who can allow his/her kid to behave the way they were behaving."