BEREA — Motjanyelo Khang cannot hold back his tears.
Four of his six children died after eating food that is suspected to have been poisoned.
Two other children are still recovering at Maloti Hospital in Mapoteng.
Tragedy struck Khang’s family last Sunday during lunch after the family had just had papa, moroho and “archer” — a spice of fried mango.
Khang who was tearful when the Lesotho Times visited his family yesterday said he was at his sister’s house when his neighbour sent a message that all was not well at his house.
Occasionally he stops talking and sobs. The small hut is filled with voices of weeping family members.
One of them is ‘Maselebalo Khang, the children’s mother.
Khang said when he arrived home he found villagers frantically trying to save his children.
“I was shocked when I found two of my children lying on the lawn,” he said.
They were having spasms, cramps and vomiting a foamy substance.”
He said as they were running around to get help another child became gravely ill.
“We started to panic. I tried giving first-aid. I tried everything the neighbours advised me to use. I gave them water, cooking oil and milk hoping it would make them vomit the rest of whatever food they had eaten.”
But none of his efforts helped.
While he was battling to save the kids two more children started having the same symptoms.
Realising that the situation was getting worse, Khang looked around the village for a vehicle that would take the five children to the hospital, about seven kilometres away from the village.
They took the sixth child with them, thinking she might also get sick.
As anticipated, the sixth child also got sick on the way to the hospital.
He said as the van they had hired drove along the rocky road to the hospital, one child stopped having spasms and cramps. The foamy substance also stopped. He lay still.
“I was afraid that he could be dead. I held him in my arms, shouting to him to stay awake until we reached the hospital. But it was too late. In about five minutes his body was cold and lifeless,” he said, tears rolling down his cheeks.
At the hospital two children were given some medicine while the other three were rushed to the operation theatre. Unfortunately nothing could be done to save the lives of the four children as they were later confirmed dead.
At the time of going to press two children were still recovering in hospital.
Khang said he was still in shock.
He said it was going to take him years before he recovered from the loss of his four children.
“This is the most heartbreaking experience of my life. It is going to take some years before I heal,” he said.
His wife ‘Maselebalo did not say a word in an hour-long interview with the Lesotho Times.
She is the one taking the death of the children the harder way, Khang said.
“She has not said a word ever since the news that the children did not survive. She cries all day. She does not eat and hardly speaks to anyone,” he said.
The date for the funeral is not yet set.
“The police said we should wait until the post-mortem reveals the cause of the deaths.”
