Families, friends and community members are expected to assemble at Naledi Hall, in Soweto on Sunday, to pay their last respects to the late five children. They died after allegedly consuming suspected poisoned snacks.
The five children who were between the ages of 6 to 10 years will be given a mass funeral. This incident has led to the closure of a number of spaza shops in the area by the disgruntled residents.
Investigations are still under way.
One of the parents Otlotlile Msimango described her child as a happy child.
“When I got there, there was Zinhle, another child who (had) already (eaten) the poison. So, they were trying to save Zinhle’s life and then my son also was there. They put a drip on him, they tried their best. Unfortunately, our children couldn’t fight the poison,” says Msimango.
She says the doctors confirmed the type of poison that was found in the children’s system.
“When they confirmed the poison they said we found a rat poison in your children system. My son was lying there lifelessly, together with that child. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, to look at my son with no voice. Such a happy child, he was unable to talk to me,” she says.
Meanwhile, City of Johannesburg MMC for Public Safety Mgcini Tshwaku is calling for criminal charges to be laid against people involved with the spaza shop in Naledi, after a search that revealed non-compliance to health and safety standards.
As the families of the children held a memorial service for all five of them on Friday Tshwaku told SABC News that she was seeking accountability.
“We’ve taken samples from the Spaza shop. They’ve actually been taken for analysis. If there’s a link between the deaths of the kids and the spaza shop, then I say that those people must take full responsibility and criminal charges must be placed along those people there. There’s gonna be now an engagement, because I said to them ward councillors must be involved, ward committees must be involved, patrollers must be involved, and environmental health,” she says.
Tshwaku has warned that without proper compliance by spaza shop there existed the risk of communities taking matters into their own hands.
Food Poisoning | Memorial service for Naledi children:
In a different story, the Gauteng Department of Health earlier this week confirmed that over 70 Grade 12 learners from various schools in the West Rand area were receiving treatment in several Carletonville Hospitals following a suspected food poisoning incident.
This after 74 female learners from Fochville Secondary School, Badirile Secondary School and Wedela Technical School took ill.
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