The national Department of Health has said a chemical agent could be behind the series of food poisoning incidents.
Environmental inspectors and others began their work in Naledi, Soweto, on Monday to identify the chemical agent.
Six children in Naledi, Soweto, died of suspected food poisoning after consuming snacks allegedly bought from a spaza shop in the area.
There have been other cases of alleged food poisoning involving snacks bought from foreign-owned spaza shops. The incidents have sparked widespread outrage and led to communities shutting down spaza shops in Gauteng and destroying their supplies.
Spokesperson for the national Department of Health, Foster Mohale, said various authorities and departments had been seized with the matter including the SA Police Service, the metros of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni which deployed their environmental inspectors to investigate the cause of the sudden attacks; the Environmental Directorate of the National Department of Health had also sent Health Inspectors to check compliance with health regulations.
The Department of Agriculture had also sent in their officials to check if the problem might not be emanating from produce or the lack of compliance with some of their production regulations.
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has also deployed senior officials to investigate the possibility of a breach of consumer protection regulations.
Mohale explained that it was decided that all the investigations involving various institutions and bodies should be coordinated by the Department of Health.
He said Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi had also brought in the National Institute of Communicable Diseases which played a key role during the Listeria outbreak a few years ago.
Mohale said at the end of a careful analysis by all bodies, the multi-sectoral teams came to the conclusion that the country was dealing with a chemical agent that must be identified as a matter of urgency.
“A plan has subsequently been hatched to mount a systemic search for the agent causing this malady. Among others, this plan entails unleashing an army of 80 environmental inspectors (health inspectors) from the National Department of Health and the City of Johannesburg,” said Mohale.
The inspectors will be joined by teams selected from SAPS, Department of Agriculture and the National Consumer Council.
He said teams had undergone training at the NICD and have been provided with the necessary equipment and tools.
Meanwhile, as a number of spaza shops owned by illegal foreigners remained shut, local business leaders urged Gauteng MEC for Economic Development, Lebogang Maile, to advocate for the domestic economy, pushing for preferential treatment for local entrepreneurs over their foreign counterparts.
Maile’s visit to Naledi was a component of a larger reaction to the community’s increased anxieties following a string of unfortunate incidents, which included the deaths of six children from illnesses connected to food.
The MEC’s visit was the result of a surge of anger triggered by the death of the owner of a local spaza shop and following acts of looting in Boipatong that targeted foreign-owned businesses.
Residents expressed their frustrations over what they perceived as a local economy dominated by foreign nationals, leaving them sidelined in their own communities.
“We will have to make grants available for these closed shops. It’s unacceptable. We can’t allow people, whether legal or illegal, to come here, engage in violent activities, and threaten the lives of our people,” Maile stated during his engagement with locals.
He acknowledged that uncontrolled borders contributed significantly to the influx of illegal immigrants, whose presence has received intense scrutiny amid the growing crisis.
Community members spoke out on the urgent need for empowerment and support, calling on the government to mirror the proactive stance taken during the Covid-19 pandemic, when initiatives like the Solidarity Fund were implemented.
Business owner Siphiwe Tshabalala called for the government to show more determination in resolving the issue of immigration and dominance of the township economy by undocumented nationals.
“The government can declare this a national disaster and act swiftly. We need the same vigour of GNU to be used on this issue of spaza shops,” Tshabalala pleaded.
Bheki Twala, who is also a business owner, slammed the government for failing local business people, saying: “When we call you, you guys do not respond to us. You tell us to coordinate ourselves. We have done that but we are still not recognised. All the solutions to challenges are with us. You can’t design programmes from your office without consulting us.”
Despite the unease, health experts caution against jumping to conclusions. Professor Pieter Gouws, from Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Food Safety, remarked that while the correlation between spaza shop snacks and child fatalities cannot be entirely dismissed, it is considerably improbable that such products were the direct cause of these deaths.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has urged immediate action from the government to safeguard children’s access to safe, nutritious food, stressing the government’s responsibility to ensure community security.
“Every child must have access to food that is safe and nutritious, and the government must do everything possible to prevent future incidents,” the DA statement affirmed.
The Star