'Only God knows': Naledi community still reeling after deaths of 5 children
The children, aged between six and nine, died within minutes of each other on Sunday, after allegedly consuming chips from a local spaza shop.
The family of one of the children who died after eating goods from a spaza shop in Naledi. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/Eyewitness News
JOHANNESBURG - The community of Naledi in Soweto is still reeling from the deaths of five children who died after allegedly consuming chips from a local spaza shop.
The children, aged between six and nine, died within minutes of each other on Sunday.
Their parents are lamenting how the children died at a local clinic after displaying symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting, and frothing at the mouth.
The families of the five children have relayed how they were all friends and how they passed on after allegedly consuming chips bought from a local spaza shop in the area.
They expressed their pain and sorrow as they try to cope with the loss of these children.
One child is currently in hospital under intensive care, and this is what the child's mother told Eyewitness News: "So, the doctor said that the poison is coming out. They can’t tell me that it’s going to be fine or what. Only God knows. I must just pray."
The Gauteng Department of Education is in Naledi and is going door-to-door visiting the families of the victims.
It is known that police are investigating five inquest dockets, and that poison is rumoured to have been found among some of the goods confiscated from the spaza shop by police on Sunday.
It is understood a mass memorial is being planned by the families, and talks are still underway regarding funeral arrangements.