‘School nutrition programme cleared regarding foodborne illnesses’

Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane, says health and environment authorities have cleared the school nutrition programme regarding the foodborne illnesses at the Thabisile Primary School in Diepkloof in Soweto.

Members of the provincial education department visited the school following the death of an eight-year-old Grade 2 pupil in hospital on Friday. She fell ill last week Wednesday after she had allegedly consumed biscuits from a local spaza shop.

After visiting the family MEC Matome Chiloane reiterated that, the Department of Education has closed all sales of food in schools to minimise cases of foodborne illnesses.

Chiloane says the department together with the family are waiting for the autopsy report.

“In principle we must really wait for the post-mortem and we’ll get a sense of what could have led to this. I know there was an allegation of the nutrition in our schools that one needs to be dismissed as early as possible. It cannot be one child when we are feeding the whole school. You know, if there’s something wrong, it should have been at least even five kids who could have said that maybe there is something with the food that we’re giving our children. So in the school, there’s no child that really experienced any of these side effects at all, and even today, they’re still being fed.”

Suspected Foodborne Illness | MEC Chiloane visits family in Diepkloof after tragedy: