5 months ago
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The families of two children who died in October 2023 after eating biscuits allegedly bought from a local spaza shop in Naledi, Soweto, are still in the dark about what caused their deaths.
For a year, none of the authorities have given them feedback on investigations or postmortem results.
The late Leon Jele's uncle, Tshepo Williams, said: “We've gone to the police station a number of times, constantly asking for an update, and each time we’re told that investigations take long.
“All [this] while we are not getting any closure. The case has gone cold with no progress, and often it seems as if we are begging them to tell us something.”
He said the family has yet to receive the postmortem results to find out what was the actual cause of death.
“We haven’t been told anything. No one has visited our home with any results to tell us what happened to our boy. We are in the dark and I’m scared and worried that this might also be the same for this [other] family.”
Five other families in Naledi lost their children on Sunday after the group consumed snacks allegedly bought from a spaza shop.
A seven-year-old boy is fighting for his life in intensive care, and the families of his five friends are pinning their hopes for answers on him.
Mathoto Khang, the grandmother of Neo Khang, who also died in 2023, and Katleho Mbatha, who survived, said they still want answers.
“No one has come to the house at all. We have not received any updates and only have the information that we received from the mortuary last year about the cause of death. All we know is that it’s food poisoning.
“At some point, I even went to the police station asking for the reports but they said the reports on Neo from the mortuary had come back but that the reports on the clothes that she had vomited on were still in Pretoria. [The cop] said we should go home and that once they have the reports, they would come back to us ... but that was months ago and we are still waiting,” Khang said.
She said the past year has been painful for the family.
“It’s a very painful situation to be in and I don’t think anyone who has not experienced it can truly understand how it feels to lose your child and have no answers that can truly explain what happened to them. You have to accept things just as they are and it’s very painful.
“My daughter doesn’t sleep. Often she would have dreams about her child, dreaming that Neo was alive and she would wake up crying. I don’t want to be considered a liar. I want to keep the promise I made to my child. I want to have the reports and take them to the cemetery to 'show' Neo that we finally know what happened to him instead of constantly going there empty-handed and crying. I want the truth, I want answers. It’s been very painful without knowing the truth,” said Khang.
However, Joburg MMC for health and social development Ennie Makhafola on Tuesday told the media that Neo and Leon did not die from food poisoning from the biscuits did not die from food poisoning from the biscuits.
Makhafola said postmortem results revealed that the substance that poisoned the children did not come from the biscuits they ate.
“We had suspected it was food poisoning but according to reports we got from the lab, it was not. The samples that we took from the snacks did not match with what poisoned them. According to postmortem [results, the cause of death] was something they had consumed but not the snacks.
“That's why we're urging the community... the things we use to get rid of rodents, poisons that we use to get rid of rats and everything, in our households, we need to make sure that our children don't have access to them at all. We need to start educating the community. This time around [on deaths of five children in the same area] we are also waiting for the results to also determine the cause of deaths,” said Makhafola.
Khang and Williams said they felt the pain of the families of the five children who died recently.
“We wish the families well and [God] bless them because it’s going to be a very long journey,” Khang said.
Williams and Khang alleged that the spaza shop where the five children bought snacks from on Sunday was owned by the same person who allegedly sold their children biscuits last year.
They said the shop owner closed the store and moved two streets away to open another.
“And here we are again, facing a similar situation. It’s painful to know that you can’t do anything but wait for answers. My sister [Leon's mother] is in pain. She may put on a strong front but I know that she is still mourning Leon.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the community demanded that spaza shops in Naledi be closed and that the owners should leave.
One resident, Mamokete Motseki, said the community was deeply hurt by the recent deaths. “We're in pain, especially after hearing that their deaths were caused by snacks they ate from the spaza shop.
“So, today in the morning we decided we wanted them [shop owners] gone so that we can be able to see what is killing our children if it's not them,” said Motseki.
Another community member, Koppie Legodi, said they peacefully requested the spaza shop owners to close their shops.
“We didn’t go there in aggression or anger, we just wanted them to understand what needs to be done for the community to be safe.
“We don’t know what exactly killed the children but to be on the safer side, we want them to go. This can’t keep happening and no one is held responsible, something needs to happen and the children need to be safe,” Legodi said.
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