I never want to see polony again‚ says Klipspruit crèche owner

The owner of the Klipsruit West crèche near Soweto where nine children were diagnosed with listeriosis says she has been traumatised by the ordeal.

“Polony‚ I don’t want to even know the colour of that thing. We have resorted to noodles or veggies or something nutritional but polony‚ no. Even if they can say it’s the Muslim one because apparently those ones are right but we just don’t eat polony‚” Momi Oliphant said on Tuesday.

Her crèche had assisted the department of health in tracing the source of the disease after her learners and grandchildren were admitted to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital with fevers‚ nausea and vomiting back in January.

All of them had been fed polony at the crèche.

Oliphant‚ who has run the Child Care and Orientation Centre for the past 23 years‚ told TimesLIVE that prior to the children being hospitalised‚ she had never heard of the disease.

“We took turns as parents . It was really a traumatic . It was only then when they were admitted at Bara that I realised that this is serious‚” Oliphant said.

“The following day we heard about this listeriosis. We then knelt down and made a chain prayer in the ward with the parents with everyone saying ‘Father‚ let it be you who will be touching and healing our kids’‚” she said.

Oliphant said it was unfortunate that community members were not well-informed about such illnesses.

“With this one‚ I would have personally loved to see‚ not even an advert‚ but even if we do door-to-door ‚ because it was really a traumatic thing‚” she said.

Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa on Tuesday visited the crèche.

She checked the day care centre’s fridge and said she was happy to report that it was free of any illness-causing meats.