By Doreen Mokgolo
The families of the five children who died from food poisoning in Naledi, Soweto, on Sunday are heartbroken and urgently want answers about what killed their kids.
And they want foreigners who own spaza shops in the township to leave.
The children – Zinhle Maama, 7; Njabulo Msimango, 7; Karabo Rampou, 8; Isago Mabote, 8; and Monicca Sathekge, 6 — got sick after sharing “brown dash” snacks they bought from a local tuckshop.
The children were rushed to different hospitals but were declared dead on arrival.
Their friend Katlego Olifant, 7, is fighting for his life in the ICU at Lesedi Hospital.
Police hope he will survive and be able to tell more about the snacks the children bought.
The children will be buried this weekend, one on Saturday and the other four on Sunday at a mass funeral.
A plastic bag containing some bits of the “brown dash” snacks was found in one of the children’s pockets and sent for testing. The families are awaiting the toxicology report and the post-mortem results.
“They [spaza shops] keep killing our children, and the government is protecting them,” said William Mogagane at the memorial service for the five children on Friday at the Naledi Community Hall.
Mogagane is a relative of one of the two children from Naledi who died last October after allegedly eating poisoned biscuits,
The families of the two children said they only recently heard through the media that the toxicology tests on the biscuits came back negative for poison.
Mogagane said: “We only heard from the second family that their post mortem results revealed that the children were poisoned by rat poison.
“We were shocked during the week when we learned through the media the MMC of Health and Social Development, Ennie Makhafola, saying the results were released in November and came back negative.
“Why were we not told? How long do we have to wait?” Mogagane added. “We are still waiting for the government to tell us what they found from the tests.”
At the memorial service, Matome Chiloane, the Gauteng Education MEC, encouraged the Naledi community to start their own tuckshops and support each other.
“Government is giving money to help local businesses,” he said.
Lucy Mofubetsoana, from the South African Local Government Association, called on the community to act.
“The reality is, those who put rat poison in the food they sell to the community don’t eat it or give it to their families. This is the second time we have lost more than one child to poisoned food bought from a tuckshop. We need to protect our children,” she said.
Pictured above: The memorial service.
Source: Doreen Mokgolo
