MWENEZI – A dark cloud hung Monday on a Mwenezi family which lost four members from suspected food poisoning.
Police revealed the tragedy via their official social media handles Wednesday.
“The ZRP reports a sad incident which occurred on 27/11/22 at Musisinyani Village, Mwenezi where four family members died due to suspected food poisoning after complaining of severe stomach pains,” police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said.
“Post mortem was done and it was established that death was due to chemical toxicity. Investigations are underway.”
Nyathi did not reveal further details on the tragedy.
Cases of family members dying through food poisoning are now common.
December last year, an Inyathi couple lost three children who died in their sleep after inhaling pesticides applied on shelled maize while their parents narrowly escaped death.
The three female infants aged seven, one and five years suffocated after their parents had applied Aluminium Phosphide 560TB fumigation tablets on their shelled maize, stored the maize in a storeroom next to their bedroom and went to bed.
In 2017, four Murehwa children also died in their sleep in a suspected case of suffocation after their grandmother had treated some maize grain with an unknown chemical before storing it in the bedroom.
A year earlier, five family members, four of them juveniles, died in Masangula communal lands in Mwenezi from suspected food poisoning after sharing sour milk which had been mixed with dried vegetables and served for supper together with sadza.
