Poisoned six-year old making speedy recovery

THINGS are slowly getting back to normal for six-year old Zandiswa Ntombela, the Grade R pupil from Okhalweni Primary near Hlobane who consumed toilet disinfectant at the school.

According to the child’s mother, Nelisiwe Ntombela, Zandi is doing much better after an operation was done on her last week to help open up her throat area as she was no longer able to swallow food.

“She couldn’t even swallow her saliva and was constantly telling me about how painful it was,” said Miss Ntombela.

The substitute principal at the school, Miss Sibongile Buthelezi extended her apologies to the child’s family and went on to say that the child was in all the educator’s prayers.

“The disinfectant was placed in a cupboard in one of the classrooms where the learners happened to be eating. I am not aware of how exactly it was placed. Whether it had been put away for later use or whether they had had put it away as a means to keep it away from the children’s reach. Children are curious people and thus we could not really draw a conclusion as to why Zandiswa drank the disinfectant,” said Miss Buthelezi.

Miss Buthelezi emphasised that as a school, they were however very sorry for the incident and that better precautions would be taken in future to ensure that such matters never occur again.

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