By Anita Dangazele
The Department of Basic Education has warned parents to keep an eye on what their children eat as cases of food poisoning rise. Six children died in Naledi, Soweto, after allegedly consuming snacks from a foreign-owned spaza shop.
Recent weeks have seen a spike in food poisoning cases across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo, with over 100 students needing medical care. The department’s spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, urged families to be vigilant.
“We are urging parents, caregivers, and guardians to ensure that they talk to their children about the things they eat, where they buy it, and the safety in particular. They need to try to eat from trusted sources because of the chaos that has been happening as a result of food poisoning incidents that have been reported in many parts of the country.”
Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi is awaiting test results on a chemical found during recent spaza shop raids. He suggested the children’s deaths might be due to chemical, not bacterial, contamination.
“Food poisoning means food contamination specifically by bacteria. That was what it’s medically called – when food is not well kept, and in simple language we say it is rotten or spoiled. Those are the ones that make you sick, and doctors make a diagnosis of food poisoning,” he said.
“Whereas we are dealing with, we think, a chemical that is laced in the food either inadvertently or deliberately or carelessly. But that substance needs to be scientifically linked with what has happened, and then we move forward from there.”
Pictured above: A spaza shop looted in Naledi, Soweto after six children died after eating goods from the shop.
Source: X
