The family of a girl from H2, Sikhaleni, Mpangeni, wants an end to immigrant shops in the area, after she fell ill and died late after eating chips on Sunday.
Anele Nomagugu Tshabalala (2) is said to have been confirmed as dead when he arrived at the Thokoza clinic, after being rushed there in distress.
According to her grandfather, Ms. Khanyisile Chili, it was around 8 in the morning when Anele asked her mother for money to buy chips as usual.
“Her mother just told them to go and buy them both, they went out to the store. They came back with two packets of chips and one candy. Anele sat down and ate one packet of jiggies,” said Miss Chili.
He said that when he finished eating the chips, he poured bath water, he went to the bathroom, and when he was done, he put on his face and got dressed.
“It was heard that he was crying a lot and when he was looked at, he was found crying, holding his stomach and saying that it hurt,” said Ms. Chili.
He revealed that when they were surprised by that, they saw us flapping in an unusual way, and he was once again bitten by a cold person.
“When he got up, he was foaming at the mouth, then he sneered and his body became stiff. We called a neighbor’s car to rush us to the clinic and that’s when they came and said that when they examined him, they said that he was gone,” he said.
He said that Anele’s illness started suddenly, it didn’t even last 30 minutes, and she died.
He stated that they have strong suspicions that his illness started because of the chips he bought at the immigrant shop, as he had never eaten anything before he ate them.
“As he was taking a shower, he was preparing breakfast to eat when he finished dressing, but he fell ill before he could eat,” said Ms. Chili.
He said that the report of the doctor who examined the body on Tuesday revealed that he died of food poisoning.
He said they want the shops of immigrants in the area to be closed.
“We want them to be closed so that what happened to us will not happen to another family. We do not understand what is happening but it is clear that there is a risk,” he said.
He said that the shop where the chips that are suspected to have killed the deceased were bought has been in the area for years, and he said that what they have noticed is that Pakistani immigrants are selling them.
He pointed out that they have always shopped there all these years as it is the closest one. He said that apart from the incident of a member (34) of the family, who also complained of stomach pain after eating chips that he bought at the same store two weeks ago, there is no other incident like this that they have ever heard of.
“This relative rushed to drink milk with Eno after having a stomach upset. This was something we did not pay attention to as we recovered after doing these things. We remembered because Anele has died that we also suffered from a mysterious stomach since we ate the chips we bought from the same shop,” said Ms. Chili.
He said that what will happen to the owner of the shop, they will wait for the police, he said that what they are aware of now is that the shop is closed following the fact that the police visited it after the incident.
He said the paper chips the police took and said will be part of the investigation when they went to report the incident.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson, Colonel Robert Netshiunda, said that the police in Sikhaleni opened a post-mortem after the little girl was rushed to the health center where she died after eating chips.
“The investigation into the cause of his death is still ongoing. The owner of the shop where the chips were bought has been arrested after it was found that he was in the country illegally. The result of the autopsy will be the one that will indicate the next step the police will take,” said Netshiunda.
Meanwhile: On social media, there are videos showing children in the clinic, crying. It turns out that they belong to the school iAt Shukela Primary, Jozini, who fell ill after eating apples.
It is a country found out that about 50 apples were given to students at school on Tuesday, as there is a program to give food to students every day.
It turned out that learning was disrupted and the students complained of stomach upset after eating apples.