Better inspections instead of visits, pleads Alex father whose child died after eating poisonous snacks

The father of 10-year-old Lesedi Mulaudzi, who tragically died in Alexandra at the weekend after allegedly eating snacks with her mother and a sibling, is calling for increased inspections at local spaza shops.

Speaking on Monday during the MEC of finance and economic development Lebogang Maile's visit to Alexandra , north of Johannesburg, Joshua Maaboi said his wife and her four-year-old son were recovering in hospital. 

They are in a  stable condition in the Edenvale Hospital.

“She was getting there, hopefully, today [Monday] I might find her in a different and better situation. My son yesterday [Sunday] when I was with him, he was doing well as I know him, playing and talking to me as if we were at home,” he said. 

Maaboi said the MEC's visit changed nothing and he still wasn't feeling OK after the tragedy.

“[It] is like we are going round in circles because it happened , they came to visit, condolences and that's it. But maybe tomorrow or after two or three weeks, we will see them doing the same thing.

“The government must do proper inspections at the shops instead of this,” he said. 

Maaboi said the inspectors should find out who runs the shops and where the owners get their stock..

He added he hadn't heard anything regarding the shop owner. 

Maile said he visited the family to convey his condolences and to receive first-hand information about what had transpired.

He said they had been expressing their dismay about food poisoning since the incident in Naledi. 

“It has got out of control. I think it can't be that every week we bury a child because of this lawlessness and these unfortunate activities that are taking place in these spaza shops in townships,” he said. 

He added he hoped the president would declare a state of emergency and that something drastic needed to be done.

“This is a proposal that I will have to take to the provincial council, and the premier of the province will have to take it there [to the president]. The councillors have made a commitment that they will be with the family ... If they need help they will be able to communicate with us,” he said. 

Maile added law enforcement agencies and those entrusted with inspections should be more aggressive and move faster.

“They need to make sure that they cover as many areas as possible because they do these inspections, but I don't think they are doing enough,” he said.