SOWETAN SAYS | Let’s rise against kids’ deaths

As children continue to die from eating snacks bought at spaza shops, South Africans are understandably outraged – more so at what they view as a lack of urgency by the government to deal with the matter.  

The media, including ourselves, have put the crisis at the forefront of the national discourse while our readers voice their dissatisfaction daily through the letters we publish on this page. Today, one reader calls for a state of emergency to be declared for the country to deal with the childrens deaths by poisoning. 

It is not a far-fetched call given the urgency of the matter, and the fact that the last time we heard from the government on the issue was when health minister Aaron Motsoaledi named the poison found in the bodies of the Naledi children – organophosphate. That was on October 28, and nothing significant ever since has come forth.

Will health inspections of the factories where these snacks are made and packaged, for example, be conducted? Will the illegal trade in organophosphate products be stamped out? Are the shops allowed to use it as a pesticide?

People also complain about the validity of the immigration and trade permits of the spaza shop owners. Let all these concerns be addressed without fear or favour.

Last Saturday, another child died in Alexandra, and her mother and brother have been hospitalised after falling sick from eating the same snack as the 11-year-old.

The call for action is scattered, and that is a problem on its own. We’ve lost the community spirit that used to keep us together as we fought or opposed anything harmful or unfair to us as a people. A loud and vigorous collective push for a common cause kept the apartheid regime on its toes until it was finally defeated.

This time around, closing down the towns, despite the noble cause, can be avoided. All the people need to see is a caring government come to them, listen to their concerns and expectations, and act on what it has heard.

Lastly, a campaign to save our children should start at the family level. Let us impress on our children that it’s dangerous to eat these snacks and, therefore, shall not be bought until the crisis of deaths by poisoning is resolved.

SowetanLIVE