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Parents should take responsibility for what their children consume and encourage them not to buy food or snacks from informal traders, as the total of kids being poisoned climbs to over 300.
“Parents, guardians and caregivers are urged to be on high alert and to monitor the food items children consume and, most importantly, to verify the source of such items,” basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said.
This call was echoed by an expert and the National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) yesterday.
There has been a hike in children’s deaths because of poison, with eight dying last month alone.
A two-year-old baby boy from Violetbank in Bushbuckridge was the latest victim after he on Tuesday reportedly ate snacks bought from a local tuck shop.
His four siblings, aged between two and five, were hospitalised after they presented poisoning symptoms.
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Mhlanga urged parents and communities to look after their children.
He also called on school governing bodies and schools to keep pupils safe. “In all the cases the pupils have eaten items bought from vendors and spaza shops in and around schools.
“School governing bodies and school management teams should play a leading role in ensuring that healthy snacks and beverages are sold to pupils.
“While the school has no jurisdiction over street vendors, the school community should make an effort to keep a database of individuals selling food and beverages on or near the school premises.”
Mhlanga added schools should meet school-based tuck shop operators on the nutritional value of products being sold.
NASGB general secretary Matakanye Matakanye said the organisation had also launched an initiative in which they were encouraging parents to tell their children not to buy from spaza shops, or any informal trader.
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“We want to make sure the children only buy from the shops situated within the schoolyard, instead of going out and buying things that will make them sick.
“It is, indeed, the school governing bodies’ responsibility to make sure vendors on the school premises are vetted, although the poisonings are linked to shops outside the schools,” said Matakanye.
He called on the department of education to play its role.
“It is their job to interact with other organs of the state to make sure that they regulate the vendors and spaza shops situated outside of schools.
“The department must work with the police, municipality and others because they will understand them better than us,” Matakanye said.
Rudzani Mhlari, psychology lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at University of Mpumalanga, said people were forced to buy from spaza shops because they were within the communities and sold cheaper products.
ALSO READ: Spaza shops: State urged to intensify policing of informal food outlets
“They will not tell the children to stop buying from those shops because they do the same.
“However, parents need to be careful when buying things for their children because you will find things they don’t even qualify to sold,” Mhlari said.
“We know sometimes parents are the ones taking groceries and snacks for the children on credit.
“The only solution here is for the government to regulate the shops, while educating the public about the danger of buying from unregulated shops.”
Department of health spokesperson Foster Mohale said since the deaths of six children from Soweto because of organophosphate poisoning in the first week of October, the department had been investigating the cause of the problem and raiding spaza shops.
“We will continue with unannounced blitz inspections that we started in Naledi, Soweto.”
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