Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has confirmed that the chemical organophosphate was the cause of death that killed six children in Naledi, Johannesburg.
Speaking at a media briefing on Monday, Minister Motsoaledi, said they died in Soweto earlier this month after allegedly consuming snacks from a spaza shop.
The Department of Health had dispatched a group of 80 environmental health inspectors, and officials from other government departments, to get to the bottom of the food poisoning cases.
Motsaoled said they visited 84 spaza shops in search of evidence of a chemical which they had believed was responsible for the illnesses and fatalities.
He said the operation, done under the supervision and instruction of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, was concluded on Friday and a report presented to the Department over the weekend.
"The results show that the cause of death is unequivocally organophosphate.
“As you know, organophosphate is not one substance but a group of substances, which are usually used in agriculture or as pesticides.
“The organophosphate identified in this instance is called Terbufos. All the six children died of Terbufos ingestion," Motsoaledi said.
The Minister of Health noted that children can become affected by acute pesticide poisoning and chronic effect of exposure through ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact.
"That organophosphate can even enter your body through contact with your skin, and hence can affect you from contaminated clothing.
"In children it has been reported that oral ingestion is the most common route for organophosphate toxicity."
