Food poisoning: Enough of children dying

Death is an inevitable part of a human being’s life cycle but as South Africans, we seem to have allowed ourselves to get used to it. We have seen an increase in children dying of foodborne illnesses, with 11 dying in the past five weeks and more than 300 hospitalised.

We are outraged for a day or two then move on as if nothing had happened, until the next case is reported.

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On Monday, 10-year-old Lesedi Maaboi died after consuming chips bought from a spaza shop in Alexandra.

Two more children, sixyear-old Owami and nine-year-old Hope Xaba, also died in similar circumstances at their Ekurhuleni home last week. This came after a two year old died the same way in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.

One expects citizens to be up in arms, calling on authorities to take urgent action against informal traders. But not us, we will be shocked when another kid dies, as if it is the first time.

It is as if we made peace with the kids dying like this. Poor us, what can we do? This is not a new attitude for South Africans, the country has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

According to Institute for Security Studies, around this time last year it is at 45 deaths per 100 000 people, which translates to 75 deaths per day.

These are shocking statistics, as experts always say such figures should be coming from countries in war.

However, in SA it’s been like this for a couple of years now, but life continues as normal. Is it us being used to death?

Or it is because the upper class of our society, that includes politicians, do not care because they are not affected? The murders happen mostly in townships, same as the poisoning of the kids.

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It has become cliché to say that we are 30 years into democracy but there seems to be no change, there is still no respect for the black life.

Last week, The Citizen approached the departments of health, education, small business and national school governing association to find out how many more children must die before action was taken to contain the foodborne illnesses?

Department of basic education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga called on parents, guardians and caregivers to be on “high alert and to monitor the food items children consume”.

National Association of School Governing Bodies general secretary Matakanye Matakanye said the organisation had urged parents to tell their children to stop buying from spaza shops, or any informal traders.

The department of health said it had raided spaza shops and had not found a link with poison, but would continue to raid unannounced.

There was no tangible action in place except raids and passing the buck to each other and parents.

The overall message was parents are responsible for their children’s safety. It is sad that after so many cases reported, kids are still getting ill or dying after consuming snacks bought from informal traders.

It is still business as usual for the owners. The message from government is clear, you are on your own. So, parents, it is us to stop this by preventing our children from buying snacks from spaza shops, by monitoring what they eat and instructing caregivers to do the same in our absence.

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And holding meetings with schools’ management and telling them our kids will no longer buy from vendors outside the school premises.

As a mother of two, aged 10 and seven, I am terrified of this. I plead with you: let’s rise up and protect our kids.

Let’s not wait for it to happen to us, or be reported closer to home. Let’s not allow ourselves to get used to death.

It is our responsibility as parents to protect our children. How many more must die before we say it is enough?