Mushroom dinner kills four in family

17 December 2014 - 02:10 By Poppy Louw
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TRAGIC NARRATIVE: Jeanett Legalamitlwa tells Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi about the death of her aunt and three members of her aunt's family, poisoned by mushrooms
TRAGIC NARRATIVE: Jeanett Legalamitlwa tells Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi about the death of her aunt and three members of her aunt's family, poisoned by mushrooms
Image: MOELETSI MABE

Two gold medals hang below a certificate of achievement made out to Frank Mthethwa on the wall of his home in Olievenhoutbosch, near Midrand.

He, his younger sister, 7, and their parents died after eating poisonous mushrooms for supper.

Jeanett Legalamitlwa, 28, struggled to hold back the tears when speaking of what happened to her aunt Johanna and the family.

She told Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, who visited the relatives yesterday: "At first I thought it was a bad joke when I received calls telling me of the death of my aunt and her daughter. "

Her aunt told doctors she picked mushrooms from her employer's garden and cooked them with rice for her family on December 5.

Seven-year-old Angel, a Grade 1 pupil, was the first to die, on the morning of December 8.

Her mother was next, in the afternoon, and her brother, Frank, died on December 13, an hour before their father, Samson Phiri.

The surviving child, Emmanuel, 17, did not eat supper that day.

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