They've taken to the streets, demanding that all foreign owned spaza shops in their area be shut down. Street by street, they chanted in groups, knocking on the doors of foreign-owned spaza shops, telling them to take their stuff and leave.
WE ARE TIRED
A resident who spoke to ZiMoja, Dimakatso Molefe, said they've had enough of kids mysteriously dying after allegedly consuming something they've bought from the spaza shops. "We are not fighting them but we demand that they pack their stock and leave. A similar incident happened last year in October, where two kids died after they ate biscuits," she said. Dimakatso said they should leave to avoid further aggravating the angry community,.
GO BACK TO EATING AMAKIP KIP
Gauteng MEC for Social Development Faith Mazibuko expressed pain over the deaths of the kids. She said that as the department, they came to bring support to the distraught families. "We are here to ensure that the families get psychosocial support and that we are united in their grief. You will recall that our policies are focusing mainly on children, and what has happened here saddened all of us. We hope that law enforcers act steadily in their investigations to ensure that the families get answers needed as to what it is that killed their children," Mazibuko said. Mazibuko also said back in the day, they used to eat kip kips and there were never fatal incidents. "Our kids must eat kip kips like we did, look at us we are still alive. Our spaza shops must also go back to our people- it was safer that way," she added.
THE SHOP IS COMPLIANT
MMC Health and Social Development in the City of Joburg, Ennie Makhafula, explained that quarterly they do compliance checks in spaza shops, including the said shop where the children allegedly bought the snacks. "The last inspection at the shop was in August, and we found that the shop was compliant. On Monday, we visited the shop again and found that it had been looted. Fortunately for us, we managed to get samples of the chips called Brown Dash that the kids allegedly consumed. So now we wait for the results from the laboratory," she said.
