SOWETAN SAYS | Government idle as kids perish

08 October 2024 - 15:40
By
Tiny Sethakge holding a picture of his daughter Monica who passed on with 4 after children after consuming snacks from a spaza in Naledi, Soweto.
Image: Thulani Mbele Tiny Sethakge holding a picture of his daughter Monica who passed on with 4 after children after consuming snacks from a spaza in Naledi, Soweto.

The community of Naledi in Soweto is in mourning following the deaths of five of its children after consuming snacks bought from a local shop. The sadness that has befallen the area, accompanied, understandably, by anger, comes exactly a year after a similar incident hit the area.

On October 1 2023, children in Naledi fell violently sick, leading to two of them dying after they had eaten snacks from local spaza shops. It is a frustrating state of affairs, not only for Naledi residents but all of us as South Africans.

We are frustrated by a seeming lack of interest by the authorities to stop these waves of children's deaths in the communities. Though the actual cause of death for the five Naledi boys and girls, all aged below 10, is still to be established by the authorities, there has been a flurry of reported cases of children, across the country, dying after eating snacks bought from local shops.

We sympathise with the communities in their anger and frustration as, together with them, we do not know what became of the past cases of children dying from eating snacks. We are in the dark because the concerned government departments do not communicate about any work they have done to deal with this matter. Do the spaza shops meet safety and hygiene standards to justify their trade permits?

What happened to samples of the snacks in previous cases of children dying after consuming them? Were there any arrests or fines imposed? There are many questions and we need more than answers. The public needs to know about the government's plans to end this crisis. The deaths of so many young children are unacceptable.

When they feel nothing is being done to address their concerns, community members tend to be restless, as seen with the looting of the shops. Lack of visible enforcement of the rule of law often leads to outbreaks of violence and the destruction of property and infrastructure.

Overall, beyond the cases of deaths after consumption of snacks, SA has a high rate of children dying from unnatural circumstances, including violence and preventable accidents, such as falling into construction ditches.

We call for action to end this crisis – save our children. 

SowetanLIVE