Africa-Press – South-Africa. A family from Ratanda, Heidelberg has given horrifying details of how they believe a father deliberately served poison-laced energy drinks to his children, killing three of them.
According to family spokesperson Johannes Khoabane, on Thursday, the man waited for the children’s mother to leave for work.
Once she had left and the five children were getting ready for their school day, he offered them energy drinks believed to have been laced with rat poison.
A preliminary report by the Education Department indicates that four of the children drank the energy drinks, spokesperson Steve Mabona said. Three children aged 16, 13 and 6 died, while a fourth sibling is fighting for his life in hospital. A fifth sibling didn’t have the drink.
‘He is apologising’: Family says dad didn’t know what he was doing when he spiked kids’ drink
While the family was unsure why the man had allegedly killed the children, Khoabane said they believed it was deliberate.
“What happened here needs us to band together in this grief. We don’t know what type of demonic spirit entered the father to do this. It seems like something he planned.”
He said after giving the poison-laced energy drinks to the children, he also fed the family dog poison. The animal died.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, who visited the schools the children attended – Ratanda Primary School and Thuto-Lesedi Secondary School – also visited the family.
The mother, according to Mabona, works as a food handler at Thuto-Lesedi. “She would have seen this firsthand, which is quite sad. They really need support.”
Khoabane said once the children fell sick at school, the teachers tried their best to save their lives.
“They tried hard and we want to thank them for that.”
He said once word got out in the community that the father was behind the alleged poisoning, the man attempted suicide.
“He took an overdose of pills and then stabbed himself several times with glass. He then took a picture of the children and lay in bed with it. I don’t know what he was trying to do.”
Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Brenda Muridili confirmed the father was now recovering in hospital under police guard. He has been charged with the murder and attempted murder.
Muridili said when officers arrived at the house, they found the man unconscious.
According to Khoboane, he told nurses he wanted to apologise for the incident.
“The nurses that were helping us at the clinic say he apologised. They said he is apologising. He says he doesn’t know what he was doing.”
Khoabane said all the family now wanted was answers.
“We have no idea what happened. All of us want to know what happened. We asked his wife and she said they had not fought. I don’t know what happened. The only person who knows is him. We are stuck, he must tell us why he did that.”
He described the father as a quiet person.
On Friday, Lesufi visited Ratanda Primary and Thuto-Lesedi Secondary where the children attended school. He said: “This is a situation where even the family pet could not survive.”
The MEC said he was devastated by the incident.
“I am so gutted. It’s very difficult. I am weak, weak, weak. It was more difficult to address those pupils and persuade them to accept what happened and that they have to comfort each other.”
Pupils at both schools had been offered psycho-social support.
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