Spaza shop biscuits did not kill two Naledi kids last year – City of Joburg

Joburg MMC for health and social development Ennie Makhafola says the two children who died in Naledi, Soweto, in 2023 did not die of food poisoning from the biscuits they bought from a local spaza shop.  

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 death,” said Makhafola. 

Accompanying Makhafola in Naledi on Tuesday was MEC for social development Faith Mazibuko and ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.

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.

—  Community member, Koppie Legodi,

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 of Naledi was deeply hurt by deaths of the five children on Sunday.

A seven-year-old who is fighting for his life in hospital and his five friends are believed to have consumed  snacks while playing, and when they returned to their homes, they fell ill, one after the other.

They complained of stomach pains, headaches and drowsiness, while some were given food as they said they were hungry.   

“I was in church when I heard about this. Everyone knows those children and 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 really 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 in 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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