The director of Khula Community Development Project, Petros Majola, urged community members to go back to ploughing in order to fight poverty.
He said this in an interview at the funeral of Ntombizanele Mtsizelwa (35), who allegedly killed her three children and herself at Jabavu locality in Port St Johns, last week.
Philani Mtsizelwa (4) and her siblings, Inganathi Mtsizelwa (8), and Iyapha (14), died.
Their 11-year-old sibling saved her own life by pretending to be dead. It is alleged that after she (the mother) left the scene, she tried to wake up her siblings but saw that they had died. She then rushed to a nearby homestead, where she reported the matter. The body of their mother was also found in the same area, only 100 metres away in dense bushes from where she murdered her three children.
“People are saying that poverty is one of the reasons that led to this problem. We are looking at the poverty, the social ills and where children are getting a social grant. If we depend only on that grant, it means we are on the wrong track, we should go back to the garden and revive what we used to do before,” said Majola.
He said that money from social grants could assist in other things, if the community members go back to food gardening.
The principal of Jabavu Primary School, Mzwandile Junda, said that all the deceased children were brilliant when it comes to their school work. “I know their mother, Ntombizanele. She came to me to ask for a job in 2018. I then granted her an opportunity to cook for learners. When the year 2019 started I told her that the Department of Education had issued a circular that they should renew their contracts. I told her but she stated that it was a challenge for her to be at the school at 04:00 to start cooking for the learners. She did not renew her contract.” He described her as someone who was very quiet, and who always showed respect to other people.
Mayor of Port St Johns Local Municipality, Councillor Nomvuzo Mlombile-Cingo, said that they would support the surviving child because God had a purpose of saving her.
“We know that children will be afraid now when their mothers say they must go somewhere because of this incident. These are the things that need to be corrected in their minds. We should take care of each other,” said Mlombile-Cingo.
