ActionSA Calls on Government to Shoulder Responsibility for the Continued Deaths of Children Due to Food Poisoning
Press Statement by Funzi Ngobeni
ActionSA Gauteng Caucus Leader
ActionSA is dismayed at the death of yet another child due to food poisoning in Soweto. This comes barely a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation as to the measures that his government would implement to curb the scourge of foodborne illnesses and deaths.
In our response to his address, late as it was, we stated that his intervention was misdirected and out of touch with what ordinary South African citizens were experiencing. ActionSA requested that, instead of the 21-day grace period afforded to the death trap spaza shops owned by illegal foreign nationals, government should close them all down and start an audit on immigration, trade, health and safety compliance. Only upon being fully compliant would spaza shops be re-opened.
Despite the announcement by COGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa declaring foodborne illnesses a national disaster today, communities in rural areas and townships continue to be at the mercy of blatantly non-compliant spaza shops whilst they are scrambling to register within the allocated period. How the shortage of health inspectors will be addressed and how plausibly soon can that be achieved, remains a gaping hole in government’s approach considering that only 15 days are left before the grace period expires.
Whilst President Ramaphosa and his government ‘found no evidence of deliberate poisoning’, the discovery of expired foods stored in the same area with hazardous chemicals in a Durban warehouse on Wednesday puts on a ditterent picture altogether.
As a party committed to the wellbeing of South Africans, ActionSA calls on President Ramaphosa to act in the best interests of this country and its citizens, children in particular, by:
Closing spaza shops owned by foreign nationals immediately.
Capacitating the health inspectorate to enable it to adequately conduct multiple raids simultaneously.
Conducting a thorough and transparent investigation of the food chain that supplies spaza shops with consumables from factory level right to the end-user. Establish a specialised unit that will investigate foodborne illness and death cases to ensure that they are expedited, and perpetrators face the full wrath of the law
Our country is yearning for protection and decisive leadership at this hour.
ActionSA stands with the citizens of the Republic and calls on government to shoulder responsibility for these continued deaths and not doing what needs to be done to protect vulnerable South Africans.
ActionSA Calls on Government to Shoulder Responsibility for the Continued Deaths of Children Due to Food Poisoning
ActionSA is dismayed at the death of yet another child due to food poisoning in Soweto. This comes barely a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation as to the measures that his government would implement to curb the scourge of foodborne illnesses and deaths.
In our response to his address, late as it was, we stated that his intervention was misdirected and out of touch with what ordinary South African citizens were experiencing. ActionSA requested that, instead of the 21-day grace period afforded to the death trap spaza shops owned by illegal foreign nationals, government should close them all down and start an audit on immigration, trade, health and safety compliance. Only upon being fully compliant would spaza shops be re-opened.
Despite the announcement by COGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa declaring foodborne illnesses a national disaster today, communities in rural areas and townships continue to be at the mercy of blatantly non-compliant spaza shops whilst they are scrambling to register within the allocated period. How the shortage of health inspectors will be addressed and how plausibly soon can that be achieved, remains a gaping hole in government’s approach considering that only 15 days are left before the grace period expires.
Whilst President Ramaphosa and his government ‘found no evidence of deliberate poisoning’, the discovery of expired foods stored in the same area with hazardous chemicals in a Durban warehouse on Wednesday puts on a ditterent picture altogether.
As a party committed to the wellbeing of South Africans, ActionSA calls on President Ramaphosa to act in the best interests of this country and its citizens, children in particular, by:
Establish a specialised unit that will investigate foodborne illness and death cases to ensure that they are expedited, and perpetrators face the full wrath of the law
Our country is yearning for protection and decisive leadership at this hour.
ActionSA stands with the citizens of the Republic and calls on government to shoulder responsibility for these continued deaths and not doing what needs to be done to protect vulnerable South Africans.