Spaza Shops Come Under Fire; Mzansi Outraged After 5 Children Die From Suspected Food Poisoning

• South Africans want foreign-owned spaza shops to be closed following the death of five children in Soweto
• The five children were killed when they allegedly consumed food that they bought from a spaza shop
• One year ago two children were killed when they consumed biscuits from a spaza shop in the same area

South Africans are calling for the closure of foreign-owned spaza shops following the death of five children in Naledi, Soweto.

Zinhle Masilela, Otlotleng Msimango, Isago Mabote, Monica Sathege and Karabo Rampou all passed after allegedly consuming poisoned food from a nearby spaza shop.

A sixth child is currently in ICU.

Children died after eating Brown Dash

According to some of the parents of the children, the kids became ill after allegedly eating a snack called Brown Dash from a local spaza shop. The shop is believed to be run by immigrants.

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The children all returned to their homes after consuming the snack, where they complained of stomach pains, headaches, and drowsiness. Parents recalled how the children were frothing at the mouth before they started vomiting something yellow-brown in colour.

This is not the first incident of suspected food poisoning in the area. On 1 October 2023, two children died allegedly after consuming biscuits from a local spaza shop in Naledi.

The community have since closed one of the shops, but it has allegedly been reopened again.

South Africans want action taken

With the same area suffering two suspected food poisoning tragedies within a year, citizens are now calling for spaza shops to be closed down.

@ms_tourist said:

“These spaza shops are another pandemic. How many more children have to perish in SA? Why are they still operating?”

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@MetroHetero added:

And for sure, it’s a Somali or Ethiopian spaza-owned shop. Time to close these spaza shops down.”

@KwenaMatlala20:

“Shut down all these Somali and Bangladeshi-owned Spaza shops. Please.”

@OshunEtta:

”How many more times must we hear about this? What is the government doing?”

@LorrenceMentoor:

“It will not stop until these lazy inspectors start doing their job by visiting these spaza shops.”

@NguluvheKhulu asked:

“Condolences to the families, what happened to the cleanup operation that recently happened in Soweto to remove foreigners running spaza shops?”

Three children from alleged food poisoning

In a related article, two toddlers and a baby died from alleged food poisoning in the Mdantsane area in the Eastern Cape.

The trio passed away after they consumed instant porridge which parents bought from a local Spar, Briefly News reported.

The product has since been recalled by the manufacturer and the retailer, and investigations into the tragedy continue.

Source: Briefly News