A week later, and there are still no answers for the Xaba family in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni. The family lost two children after they ingested poisoned food.
Owami, 6, and Hope Xaba, 9, died last week Wednesday evening. They allegedly consumed cool aid that they bought at a local spaza shop.
Sunday World visited the family on Tuesday. Thabisile Xaba, the grandmother of the children, narrated the story of their deaths.
She said the siblings, who attended Sanqoba Primary School, were given money to buy snacks by their mother. This was after the implementation of planned power cuts.
Children wanted food amid a power cut
She stated that they had not cooked because there was no power, and the children wanted food.
“Owami started complaining about being sick on Monday last week. However, he went to school on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the mother gave them money to go and buy snacks, they came back with them. They handed one sachet of cool aid to the mother, and they shared one,” she said.
She added that the children did show signs of discomfort. But they did not suspect that it was because of what they had eaten earlier.
“We went to bed, and at around 9pm, their mother called me because the children were not responding to her. I went in and found that Hope was already cold. While Owami was still responding. He died a few minutes later,” she added.
According to Xaba, they called an ambulance, and the paramedics declared the children dead.
Family not coping
She revealed that the family was not coping with the loss. And the mother has not been eating since the incident.
“She is not okay, she has not been okay since her children died. And she has lost so much weight in such a short space of time because of how difficult this is for her.”
The grandmother said she does not want to blame either the school or the spaza shop.
“At this moment we cannot say we blame the school because of their feeding scheme or the spaza shops. We don’t know.”
The family said the children will be laid to their final resting place at the weekend.
Meanwhile, the Gauteng department of education has assured that the food from school had no impact on the children’s health.
Steve Mabona, Gauteng Education spokesperson, said the food was tested. They are certain that it was not contaminated.
“It is protocol that two plates of each meal are put aside and tested. We can assure you that the food was safe for everyone to consume.”
Province experiencing deaths from spaza shop snacks
The province has reported numerous cases of children dying from eating allegedly contaminated snacks from local spaza shops.
In October, six children from Naledi in Soweto died from poisoning from snacks allegedly bought from a spaza shop. Recently, one minor from Alexandra died from a similar case.
On Saturday, angry residents took to the streets and attempted to shut down a spaza shop where the victims allegedly bought snacks.
Gauteng police spokesperson, Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, said an inquest is currently underway following the incident.
