Chocolate treat poisons schoolchildren

Schoolchildren at KwaDabeka, a poor area just outside Pinetown, don't have a lot of money to spare. This week 271 of them spent a precious 50c each on packets of chocolate - and were poisoned in return.

On Wednesday the children from the Mcopheleli and Phephile primary schools thought they were in for a treat when they found a woman outside the gates selling transparent packets of chocolate for 50c each.

"It was about five or six pieces of what looks like a broken bar of chocolate," explained the Mcopheleli head prefect Sheila Duze.

As the children, ranging in age from seven to 15, were let out for their break, they rushed to buy the chocolate and soon the woman had sold out her stock.

But just over an hour later, those same 271 children began to complain of severe stomach cramps.

"It was like something was biting me from inside," explained Nomusa Mgome.

Symptoms included cramping stomachs, severe diarrhoea, fever and a rash over the face, explained Deputy Principal Miss Zodwa Mkhize. Some of the children complained of cuts on their tongues.

"The chocolate was picked up off a dump in Umgababa and had stones and thorns all over it," explained 15-year-old Simlindile Ngwane.

The pupils' condition deteriorated so quickly that doctors and nurses from the nearby KwaDabeka clinic were called in to help.

The pupils were given a "yucky brown liquid" to drink, but it did not help. "It actually just made us feel worse," said Duze.

Three buses were brought in to take the children to RK Khan, King Edward VIII and Addington hospitals, where they were given injections, glucose and tablets and released late on Wednesday.

English teacher Sandile Chiliza said that while some of the children managed to come to school on Thursday, many stayed home because they were too weak to walk the distance to the school.

The children said on Friday they knew the woman who sold them the chocolate. She was a resident of the area, although they did not know her by name. She had sold chocolate at the school before, but this was the first time that they had become sick.

"The nurses told us they don't think it was chocolate at all but laxatives or something," said Nompilo Majozi.

Police Captain Vish Naidoo said a case of administering toxin had been opened and the police were busy looking for the vendor. They could only verify where the chocolate was from once they had found the woman.

Naidoo expected the hospital reports identifying what poisoned the children next week.