By: ANG Reporter
Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi on Friday visited a family in Heidelberg where a father allegedly poisoned four of his children on Thursday, leaving three dead, and one in critical condition.
It was an emotionally charged visit to both the affected family and the school. Lesufi began his visit at the school where two children died after consuming an energy drink given by their father who also attempted to take his own life.
According to a family spokesperson, the father, under heavy police guard, has since apologised in the hospital saying he doesn’t know what happened.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili has confirmed that the father has been charged with three counts of murder and one attempted murder case.
A police report said the father was found unconscious at home just outside Heidelberg in Gauteng.
Speaking outside the family, Gauteng MEC said: We are weak, weak. It’s very discouraging. We have gathered the information.
“It was more difficult to address the learners to try and persuade them to accept what has happened. It was more painful and difficult to enter the family home. To listen to the family representative narrating the last moment of what happened in the house until our beloved left the family.”
He added that the killing spree went to an extent that “even a family pat couldn’t escape the act. We just hear to provide support and comfort.”
Lesufi said his department couldn’t watch and do nothing when “something so cruel happens, we can’t fail to make the family know that they are not alone.
“Losing three children at the same time is not an easy thing, especially if they come from the same family. I am here to share my grief and sympathize with you and to comfort you. Lesufi told educators at Ratanda Primary school that it was “not the time to blame each other. But to hold each other’s hand and hope that our creator will be with us during this difficult period.”
Meanwhile, a teacher at the school said when she tried to take the child to the hospital the neighbours told her that even at the nearby Kganya Lesedi school, the siblings were experiencing the same difficulties.
“The learner who was not affected told us that the father gave the four siblings a drink in the morning but he didn’t drink it,” said one educator.
Switch but it was contaminated with ‘A le phirimi’
— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) May 27, 2022
The family, education sector, and the entire community of Ratanta is still shocked, said the teacher
Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said: “Preliminary reports allege that the father of the three deceased gave all his five children energy drinks in the morning while they were preparing for school. Four of the said learners consumed the energy drink after arriving at school on Thursday.
The boys are aged 6, 13, and 16 and were all learners at Ratanda Primary and Khanya Lesedi Secondary Schools in Ratanda.
Sadly, two of the learners died shortly at the school after complaining of stomach pains while one was rushed to the nearest hospital but died on the way. The fourth sibling is in a critical condition in hospital while the fifth, fortunately, did not consume the energy drink.
“As a teacher at this school especially because the grade 8 learner is one of the learners that I teach, I am really traumatized! This is tragic. We teach learners so that can they can exit school with their Matric certificate not to exit the school in a coffin,” said a teacher.
As a teacher at this school especially because the grade 8 learner is one of the learners that I teach, I am really traumatized! This is tragic we teach learners so that can they can exit school with their Matric certificate not to exit the school in coffin!
— Moore🤓 (@PreedyMoore) May 26, 2022
