A COMMUNITY is in shock after at least five boys ate rat poison – and two of them died!
The tragedy happened at extension 9 in Khuma near Klerksdorp, North West, on Thursday afternoon.
The boys who died were Lebogang Letshaba (5) and Lesedi Letlotlo (6), who attended the same creche.
It’s thought the boys found a container of milk powder mixed with halephirimi (rat poison) under bits of wood at a neighbour’s house.
Lebogang’s grieving gogo Manyewe Letshaba (44) wept as she told Daily Sun he suffered from epilepsy.
She said she found her grandson ill when she returned home at about 2pm after visiting her neighbour.
“He was lying with his mkhulu. It looked as if he was having an epileptic fit,” she said.
When he foamed at the mouth they called an ambulance. But it took too long so she put Lebogang on her back and rushed to the clinic.
“On my way I met a neighbour who is a nurse, and asked her to check my grandson.
“She told me to go back because Lebogang was no more. She told me she had heard that some kids had eaten poison.”
Jobless dad Teboho Letshaba (28) said Lebogang may have been saved had paramedics been quicker.
Lesedi’s sick, unemployed grandmother Maitumeleng Nthepang (41) said she was collecting bottles and tins to sell for recycling when she heard Lesedi had been taken to a clinic after eating halephirimi.
“The nurses told me he had passed away. It is so sad. Lesedi’s parents left him when he was a baby, and I was left to raise him.”
Three other boys treated at the Klerksdorp Tshepong Hospital were released on Friday.
The dead boys’ families survive on temporary jobs and child grants.
They appealed to SunReaders to help them bury their loved ones.
Captain Paul Ramaloko said that two inquest cases were being investigated.DAILY SUN
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