Pretoria - Klaas Mahlangu wishes the person who allegedly poisoned his two nieces and their friend had rather targeted the adults in his family instead of the little girls.
Mahlangu told mourners at the girls’ memorial service at Ema Primary School in Winterveld he still believed their poisoning last week was premeditated.
Mahlangu’s nieces, Precious Msiza, Mbali Mahlangu, and their friend Sibongile Mahleya, died after a suspected poisoning at school. They died last Thursday, falling ill after the lunch break.
A preliminary report indicated the children ate food that was not provided by the feeding scheme.
Sibongile brought cakes and juice from home. The cousins - Precious and Mbali - did not bring lunch to school but shared their friend’s food and also ate the feeding scheme meal.
None of the pupils who ate the feeding scheme food got ill and none of Mahleya’s family members who consumed the cake and juice fell ill.
“The problem was not the cooking of the food, but the serving. The children did not do anything to anyone.
“If someone wanted to come after my family, they should have gone after the adults, not the children. What have the children done?”
Mahlangu’s family has four children at the school. Sibongile and Mbali shared a desk.
The family still had faith that the person behind the poisoning would be exposed.
“The perpetrators will come out from hiding. It was not a mistake. Somebody intended to do something.”
The school on Tuesday held a memorial service for the girls before their funeral on Thursday.
Police have opened an inquest and are awaiting the post-mortem results to determine the cause of death.
Mahlangu said: “It’s a pity that police investigations will not come out with the a picture of the person who did this. Those who may have seen something must please come forward with the information.”
Mahlangu told the packed school yard that the painful thing was that the girls left home healthy but never returned home alive.
“It is not the same as when someone was sick and constantly went to the doctor. My children were okay but they died suddenly,” he said.
Mahlangu was not the only one seeking answers.
SA Democratic Teachers Union Winterveld branch chairwoman Shakes Mashaba said it was unacceptable for children to die at school. “Let there be justice. Whoever had a hand in this should be found.”
She said this was not the first worrying incident at the school.
“We have been called out to this school before because children had collapsed at assembly.
‘We must get priests (to pray here) if we should, but the issues here have to be sorted out.”
The investigations had to be completed quickly so there could be closure, she said.
After the deaths, the Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi visited the school last Friday.
He aappointed an independent team to investigate the deaths and also withdrew the feeding scheme company. A new company has been appointed in the interim.
Police spokesman Kabelo Marumo said investigations were ongoing and no arrests have yet been made.
Pretoria News