Mpumalanga Education Dept say urgent intervention needed to prevent food poisoning cases

JOHANNESBURG - The Department of Education in Mpumalanga has emphasised the importance of preventing food poisoning after 24 children were hospitalised.

It's understood the pupils from Enzani Primary School in the province ate snacks bought from a spaza shop.

This comes a day after 16 schoolchildren in Tembisa were also hospitalised after eating atchar supplied by a street vendor.

Six children in Soweto who ate snacks bought from a shop in Naledi died recently.

Police on Thursday revealed that traces of a chemical used to kill insects were found on food samples from two spaza shops in that incident.

Mpumalanga Education Department spokesperson Gerald Sambo said urgent intervention was needed.

"It will be safe for us to wait for the doctors from the Department of Health to indicate what caused this. However, the MEC for Education has actually urged parents, school communities, and school management teams to monitor what these children are consuming, be it inside or outside the school."