Naledi residents still seek answers after six children die of poisoning

Confusion and panic continue to cloud the deaths of six children from allegedly poison-contaminated food in Naledi, Soweto, after Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced this week that the cause had yet to be determined.

He said four people had been arrested and fined R2  000 each for selling harmful chemicals to spaza shop owners.

But he added that the chemicals in question did not appear to be responsible for the deaths of the children, who were all under the age of 10, and that organophosphate— a lethal substance used as a pesticide in agriculture — had been found in their bodies. 

The deaths — and the authorities’ failure to provide an explanation — sparked an outburst of xenophobic vigilante action in Naledi, where a shop owned by an Ethiopian resident was closed by local residents, and in Sharpeville and Boipatong, where shops were attacked and looted last week.

Claiming to be a “community leader”, Naledi resident “Ms Zwane” told public broadcaster SABC that residents were demanding the closure of all shops owned by “Pakistanis”, their removal from the township and replacement by South African traders. “They must go back and open shops in their own country,” she said.

Residents interviewed by the Mail & Guardian this week did not endorse such views, but a community meeting did call for more South Africans to set themselves up as spaza shop operators.

In what also appeared to be a panic reaction, children were admitted to hospital in Limpopo and later discharged, apparently without needing to be treated. 

Alleged “poisonings” were also reported in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng.

In a news conference on Monday, Motsoaledi announced that four people had been arrested at the Johannesburg Mall the previous Friday and charged with illegally selling a harmful chemical to spaza shop owners in Naledi, which included fertiliser, farm feed and agricultural medication, including a stock remedy. 

The minister said no direct link had been found between the deaths and foodstuffs bought at the spaza shops. 

He said the police had found a packet of chips in the pocket of one of the boys who died in Naledi but there were no traces of organophosphate in the food. 

Moatsoaledi said the authorities are still awaiting the results of swabs taken at spaza shops to check for other possible contamination, and would arrest any shop owners found to have traces of organophosphates on their premises. 

The ward councillor in Naledi, Lazarus Mmota, told the M&G in an interview that local residents are unhappy with Motsoaledi, because this was the second time children had died in the area and locals want to know where the poison comes from.

“It’s the duty of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to investigate,” Mmota said. “Last year two kids died and this year, in the very same month, six more.” 

He added that there had been no arrests in relation to last year’s deaths. 

The M&G put questions to the police about last week’s arrests, but had not received a response by the time of publication. 

When Naledi residents learnt of the deaths of the six children, they attacked the store they believed the children had bought snacks from. It is owned by an Ethiopian national who reportedly fled the scene. The store, among others owned by both locals and foreigners, still appeared to be closed during the M&G’s visit.

The national department of health and the City of Johannesburg launched an investigation in which 80 inspectors visited more than 80 spaza shops to trace the source of the contamination. Of those inspected, 42 were owned by foreign nationals and 43 by South Africans. 

The M&G asked the department and the city several times for comment on the results of these inspections, but they did not respond.

Two local spaza shop owners in Naledi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Ethiopian was probably targeted because of the ongoing claims in South Africa about foreign nationals selling fake and expired goods. 

“There’s that narrative around South Africa that the Ethiopians and Somalis are selling expired foods and manufacturing their own products. So I think this is something that might have led to people coming to close them down,” said one of the owners, who did not want his name used.

“It’s possible that people are still angry because they still don’t know what killed the two children last year and they are just speculating. But it did spark fears among business owners.

“I would not say I’m safe because we need to get to the bottom of this. Even if it’s something that’s happening at the factories, we need to know.”

Reacting to claims that the contamination could have resulted from conflict between foreign and South African traders, he expressed doubt that any shop owner would contaminate products knowingly. 

One of the local shop owners said from a business perspective, he had no problem with foreign-owned shops in the area, as long as they complied with South African laws and regulations. 

“Everyone can trade — it is their right to do so if it’s something that can give them money. We cannot determine who can have businesses. We’re not officials,” he said.

But the shop owners said that health inspectors and officials should visit shops regularly and not just when disasters strike. 

“They need to give us a report. When was the last time they checked these things?” one said.

Naledi residents said the meeting on Tuesday this week decided to launch projects to fund and empower locally owned spaza shops and businesses, so that people can “support local”.

Happy Mehlape, the secretary general of Proudly Ekasi, an organisation that seeks to empower businesses in township economies, said it was necessary to “remove the narrative that we can’t do anything ourselves”.

“Every time something like poisonings happens, there’s always that gap, that vacuum. So we try to close that vacuum, to say we need to come in as the business associations,” she said on the sidelines of the meeting.

“The safety of products is just a cherry on top. With the health department, SAPS, even immigration, there must be compliance with regulations; there must be standards for everyone.”

Thabang Semudi, a longtime resident of Naledi, said he does not understand why there was a need to shut down businesses. 

“For them, it’s a loss, because we don’t even know that these [contaminated] products were being sold by spaza shops,” Semudi said.

“Sometimes incidents happen, maybe at home, and then they tell you to go buy something at that store, just to put the blame on the store. I don’t know what happened, but I don’t feel like foreigners had anything to do with this.” 

He pointed out that the residents who looted the shops and presumably consumed the items seemed to be in good health afterwards, suggesting that the products are probably safe to eat. 

Wilhemina Diale rents out part of her property to a foreign national to run a spaza shop from a container, which is now empty. She said it makes no sense to call for foreign nationals to close their shops. 

“Just because one tomato is rotten, doesn’t mean all tomatoes are rotten,” Diale said.