He, however, said tests have also shown that there was no link between what the children ate and what killed them, adding that the deceased might have got in contact with organophosphate via a contaminated source or surface.
“In most of the instances, it’s important to indicate there is this organic phosphate that people would use called rat poison and others call it halephrimi and in all those instances we find that people might have consumed this substance. As the results of testing it would be proven that it is rat poison and not food poison,” he said.
The director said halephirimi is an illegal substance sold on the streets in most townships.
“In some instance, people would leave halephirimi in places where they hope it would be consumed by rats; the safety of this is questioned. We are embarking on a campaign to educate people about this, especially because it is an illegal substance. It’s not regulated [even when] people buy it on the streets.
“So we want to educate our communities in terms of this particular substance; action needs to be taken. We need to identify where it comes from, the main seller as people would be selling them in packets in the townships, illegally so. There still needs to be a huge production just to remove it,” said Chaka.
The family of Refiloe in Tsakane told Sowetan this week that they were still struggling to get answers about what killed their child.
“My heart is constantly calling out to Refiloe that I still can’t understand what really happened. As a family, we have not received any reports on what happened to her and we need to move on,” said Refiloe’s mom Motshidise Usman.
Last year in Tshepisong, West Rand, four children went out to buy snacks from a taxi rank but two children died after that.
Koena Mashale
www.sowetanlive.co.za
