Johannesburg, Nov 15 (PTI) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced stringent steps to control the increasing number of child deaths due to food poisoning from illegal pesticides across the country.
“Across the country, there has been a rise in reported cases of food-borne illnesses and deaths. A number of people are becoming severely ill and even dying after eating contaminated food. It has been found that some of the food items would have been purchased from spaza shops and street vendors,” Ramaphosa said in a nationally televised address on Thursday.
His address followed national outcries and attacks in townships on spaza shops by local residents.
‘Spaza’ shops are the name given to small, informal, mostly unlicensed shops, operated by foreign nationals in townships, largely by Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Somali and Ethiopian migrants. Some have been blamed for selling expired foods, with videos widely circulating of how brand name products were also faked by printing labels and packaging them with inferior quality goods.
“Since the beginning of September 2024, there have been a total of 890 reported incidents of food-borne illnesses across all provinces. Over the last few weeks alone, food-borne illnesses have claimed the lives of at least 22 of our nation’s children. Last month there was a major food-borne incident in Naledi in Soweto in which six children died. The youngest of these children was just six years old,” Ramaphosa said.
The president said as soon as the deaths occurred, multidisciplinary teams in government were activated to address these incidents. These teams included detectives from the South African Police Service, health officials, environmental inspectors, Department of Agriculture officials and officials from the National Consumer Commission.
“The National Institute for Communicable Diseases was requested to conduct scientific tests and has established that the deaths of the six children in Naledi, Soweto can be directly attributed to a highly hazardous chemical used as a pesticide known as Terbufos,” he said.
Terbufos is an organophosphate chemical that is registered in South Africa for agricultural use, but is prohibited for use in households.
“However, Terbufos is being informally sold as a so-called ‘street pesticide’ for domestic use in townships and informal settlements to control rats. Samples were taken from 84 spaza shops in the Naledi area. Of these, three had evidence of Terbufos,” Ramaphosa said, as he confirmed that inspectors had found food being stored alongside pesticides and detergents at some spaza shops.
Another highly toxic substance, Aldicarb, banned in South Africa since 2016, was also openly being sold by street vendors and hawkers to control rat infestations.
Ramaphosa slammed poor waste management by municipalities for the rat infestation problem.
“Many municipalities do not have the capacity and resources to conduct inspections of these businesses and enforce regulations. Our response must therefore address all the factors that contribute to the problem,” he said, announcing several interventions with immediate effect to address the crisis.
These include getting hazardous pesticides off the street; closing spaza shops which have been implicated in the deaths of children; and all spaza shops and other food handling facilities to be registered within the municipalities in which they operate within 21 days Any shop that is not registered within 21 days and does not meet all health standards and requirements will be closed.
Wide-ranging inspections and prosecution will be enforced by inter-disciplinary inspections team consisting of the South African Military Health Services, environmental health practitioners, the South African Police Service, the National Consumer Council, labour inspectors and others.
“Non-compliant businesses and shops linked to any poisoning incidents or found to unlawfully stock hazardous chemicals will be shut down,” Ramaphosa warned, as he set a deadline of one month for the first phase of the task to be completed.