School feeding schemes stopped providing meals after the last exam was written, leaving children to find food for themselves in December and much of January.
Public health facilities were rocked by a violent strike over the past two weeks, and patients were in crisis. There were not enough hands to look after the country’s most vulnerable, but then South Africans stepped up.
Nomboleko Simayile from Tsalaba Village in Engcobo was facing four counts of murder after her children aged between two and 11 were found battered to death.