City of Johannesburg worried about the lack of awareness on illegal pre-schools
WESTDENE – The City aims to raise awareness on how to identify illegally run child care centres in the wake of the death of two toddlers.
The City to act on illegally run pre-school where two toddlers came into contact with the poison.
Within 48 hours of being told of the passing of two children at a Westdene pre-school, the City of Johannesburg’s had sent its officials to the Sophiatown Police Station to investigate how far they are with the case. MMC for Health and Social Development Dr. Mpho Phalatse and her team arrived at the station on 12 June to talk to the police and the parents of the deceased. She stated, “The report we have alleges that one of the children at the pre-school brought a lunch box and shared it with two other children. One child ate just a little and was fine and never got ill. The other children ate quite a bit, got ill and unfortunately passed away.”
Dr Phalatse went on to explain how it was determined that the pre-school was the source of the poisoning. She said, “According to the mother of the child that brought the lunch box, the lunch box content was the same food that the family ate for a few days and nobody fell ill. So it’s really pointing to this facility as the source of the poison.”
The MMC also stated that the pre-school was found to be running illegally, but confirmed that it has been shut down. Phalatse said, “This was a childminder and not a registered early childhood development facility. The childminder was looking after seven children under an informal arrangement with the parents of the children.”
Phalatse stated that her department aims to share necessary information to try avoid such a tragedy from happening again in the future. She said, “As a department, we do see a need to really strengthen awareness, particularly targeting communities and parents about what to look out for when you leave your child with somebody. This is a highly-regulated environment, we cannot just take it for granted.” She went on to say that parents need to be fully aware of what constitutes a legal and illegal early childhood development facility.
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