Health authorities are in a race against time to find illegal pesticides or other chemical agents that could be linked to the deaths of 11 Soweto children as a forensic pathologist confirmed that they were poisoned – probably by a cheap street-bought poison used to kill insects and rats.
One of the products is known as “halephirimi”, loosely translated as “you will not see the sunset”.
At a briefing held on Thursday, 24 October, Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni said police had received the forensic reports for 11 deaths – six this year and five last year – and all were linked to insect poison in a class called carbamates.
Certain carbamates have been banned in many countries.
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Health authorities are in a race against time to find illegal pesticides or other chemical agents that could be linked to the deaths of 11 Soweto children as a forensic pathologist confirmed that they were poisoned – probably by a cheap street-bought poison used to kill insects and rats.
One of the products is known as “halephirimi”, loosely translated as “you will not see the sunset”.
At a briefing held on Thursday, 24 October, Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni said police had received the forensic reports for 11 deaths – six this year and five last year – and all were linked to insect poison in a class called carbamates.
Certain carbamates have been banned in many countries.
The five children who died, allegedly after eating snacks bought from a Naledi spaza shop. From left: Karabo Rampou (9), Njabulo Msimanga (7), Ida Maama (7), Monica Sebetwana (6) and Isago Mabote (8). (Photos: Supplied)
Six children died in Naledi, Soweto, of suspected poisoning this month. The children - Monica Sebetwana (6), Ida Maama (7), Isago Mabote (8), Karabo Rampou (9), Njabulo Msimanga (7) and Katlego Olifant (7) - ate snacks from a local spaza shop that authorities believe were contaminated by pesticides.
Five others died in 2023. They were Leon Jele (6) and Neo Khang (4), also of Naledi, Refiloe Usman (6) from Tsakane, and Lufuno Bokang (5) and Dimakatso Tsotsotso (3) from Vosloorus.
“We have to be careful when we spray poison,” Mthombeni said, adding that food can be contaminated in shops and kitchens. He said street food cooks and snack vendors also used poison to keep pests away. People were spraying it where they cooked, or on to packaging.
Despite the police announcement that the deaths were linked to insecticides, Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale told Daily Maverick that authorities were no closer to uncovering what caused the deaths of the six children in Naledi.
Friends and family at the funeral service of the five deceased children at Naledi Community Hall on 13 October 2024 in Soweto, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sharon Seretlo)
“It is difficult to tell if we are closer to finding the cause of food poisoning, especially the death of six children in Naledi. We can’t rule out anything, but we are following the leads. We will communicate preliminary reports within the next few days once the laboratory results are out,” said Mohale.
On Wednesday, teams of health inspectors and law enforcement agents swarmed the streets of Naledi trying to find out what led to the deaths. As a convoy of inspectors and experts drove down a road, a shop owner fled. Police gave chase.
The owner was instructed to return to the shop, where the teams were looking for pesticides. They had been sent out on a special operation because the cases of food poisoning were being treated as a potential threat to national security.
An SAPS officer and a health inspector outside a shop in Naledi, Soweto, where a banned insecticide was found. (Photo: Lerato Mutsila)
The deputy director of environmental health at the Gauteng Department of Health, Belinda Makhafola, led the operation.
Initial investigations concluded that teams should look for “a chemical agent”.
In the shop that the owner had fled, health inspectors found an innocuous-looking blue-and-silver sachet of insecticide covered in what appeared to be Chinese lettering. Makhafola said this was an example of unregulated pesticides used by informal establishments in the township.
A health inspection officer holds banned insecticide found inside a spaza shop in Naledi, Soweto. (Photo: Lerato Mutsila)
Health inspectors confiscated the substance, and the woman was instructed to close her shop. A health inspector on the ground told Daily Maverick that the seized insecticide would be tested before it was destroyed.
Makhafola said that highly toxic and banned forms of pest control were used not only in spaza shops, but also in households. However, because of budgetary constraints and a shortage of health inspectors, the department did not have the capacity to inspect every household.
“Communities prefer these banned pesticides because they are very effective compared with the normal ones that are sold on the shelves. When we ask them where they get the substances, they all have different stories. Once we are able to track the supplier and charge them for illegally selling a banned substance, then we will be able to deal with access to the community,” said Makhafola.
Officials did not find other illegal pesticides during their raid, but they suspect that shop owners were tipping off each other.
A crime protection warden outside a closed spaza shop where six children allegedly bought snacks that may have led to their deaths. (Photo: Lerato Mutsila)
Earlier in October, three children died of suspected pesticide poisoning in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape. In those cases, the suspected culprit was a related class of poisons called organophosphates.
The doctors who treated the children at a local clinic suspect organophosphate poisoning because of the children’s symptoms, but test results to prove their theory have been outstanding for weeks. Lieutenant Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa of the Eastern Cape police confirmed an investigation was ongoing.
On 14 October, the government announced new regulations to improve control of the sale of pesticides in South Africa. These will come into effect in January 2025.
Doctors working in public health have been warning for years that poisoning cases linked to organophosphates are on the rise.
A paper using data collected at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital by doctors and researchers from the Medical Research Council warned last year that the statistics were showing an alarming increase in poisoning cases, specifically in Gauteng, where 2,652 children were treated for poisoning in three years.
Although organic solvents such as acetone were the most common poisons noted, pesticide poisoning had been associated with “increased odds of death” as early as 2021.
“Public health measures to reduce the burden of organic solvents, medications and pesticide poisoning are urgently warranted,” the experts noted in their paper.
Their research, published in 2023, showed that medical professionals had noted an alarming increase in the incidence of poisoning in Gauteng, specifically since 2019, with pesticides making up 8% of the cases.
“Children with pesticide poisoning were tenfold more likely to require high-care or ICU admission,” they added.
Data from the Tygerberg Poisons Information Centre in the Western Cape, published by the Western Cape Department of Health in 2023, said the centre had received more than 1,000 calls about exposures to pesticides in that year.
Most often, problem pesticides are registered for agriculture, not home use, and sold illegally to households. They are often decanted into unlabelled containers and used inappropriately.
“Although most calls [to the poison centre] were associated with exposures to commercial pesticides, it is difficult to report on exactly what type of pesticides were involved as some are bought on the street as an unknown street pesticide.
“An example of such is ‘halephirimi’ … which is highly toxic. Fifty-eight cases of severe pesticide poisoning were reported to the Helpline, and eight deaths, during 2022, but it is estimated that this number could be much higher,” the statement said. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
