Families come to grips with deaths of children in Naledi

Residents of Kgaleshewe Street say they are grappling with the events that left two children dead and two others hospitalised in Naledi.

The community has been up in arms following the tragic deaths of six year-old Leon Jele and four year-old Neo Kgang over the weekend.

The pair is among two other children who allegedly fell sick after consuming snacks from a foreign owned shop in the area.

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Neighbour, Nikini Moropa who spoke to Urban News detailed the horror, describing that one of the children died in her hands.

“It has been a few hard nights. An innocent child died in my hands and as a mother, the deaths of these children cuts deep but we have had to be strong.

“We are praying that the children in hospital will survive as one of them is in ICU fighting for her life.

“She’s the one who was telling us everything that happened. It doesn’t look good but we are praying that they will live,” she told the publication.

According to Moropa who recalled the events said she had never seen anything like this.

“When we saw that the children were not well, we started praying over them but they were not getting better and we rushed them to Zola clinic and upon our arrival the doctors informed us that the child was long dead.

“It wasn’t long until the young one started vomiting a pink muddy substance and was put on drip and transported to the hospital,” she continued.

Appointed spokesperson for affected families, Thokozani Shoba said families were deeply devastated by the incident and were seeking answers.

“The families are in a critical state, as it can be understood given the circumstances of what they are facing. They have requested for space and time so they can gather their next moves.

“We don’t want to speculate or assume what may have happened but the incident is tragic and is very painful as those kids are still so young.

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“It is a concern as this could have happened to anyone’s child that is why the emotions of the community are high.”

Shoba pleaded with the community to wait for the post-mortem and not allow emotions that will lead to destruction of property and looting.

“We can’t act emotional and just jump into fighting. We know what happened with looting and our parents were heavily affected. If one shop is looted, it will spark a chain of events. We are appealing to the community to remain calm.”

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Currently, foreign owned shops in the area are closed after the community signed a petition demanding that all the shops halt operations until the post-mortem results confirm the cause of death of the two children.

Details of the funerals are yet to be announced.