SOWETAN SAYS | City of Joburg must act on spaza shops now

It is scandalous that the City of Johannesburg has not enforced strict rules to make sure that spaza shops that do not comply with health and safety standards are shut down.

According to responses from municipal spokesperson Virgil James, while Johannesburg has received thousands of applications from spaza shop owners at the time of the deadline on February 28, the council has approved none, and has not closed a single spaza shop.

In November last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed an inter-ministerial committee and ordered all spaza shops and food outlets to register with municipalities in reaction to the death of more than 20 kids who had consumed food purchased from spaza shops.

There were promises from the government to take measures to prevent similar incidents from taking place in the future. These included tracing the source of the poison, and also embarking on a registration drive to make sure that the state is able to check if food vendors comply with the country’s laws.

While Joburg’s neighbouring metro, the City of Tshwane, has made significant progress by approving 982 applications and ordering 23 unregistered spazas to close shop, no action has been taken by the CoJ.

The city’s lack of urgency puts the lives of kids who purchase snacks and sweets in the shops in townships in danger. While the city is dillydallying, the family of an eight-year-old boy from Mapetla in Soweto is praying that their son makes it out of the ICU after he was rushed to hospital last Friday.

The boy had collapsed after vomiting and foaming in the mouth. According to witnesses, he developed these symptoms after eating a packet of chips bought from a spaza shop run by a foreign national.

Health professionals who have treated the boy say he displayed symptoms similar to those of the six children from Naledi in Soweto who died last year. Results from the Naledi deaths proved that organophosphate — rat poison — was detected in their system.

The registration process was meant to prevent such incidents from taking place again. The president and the co-chairs of the inter-ministerial task team, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Velenkosini Hlabisa of Cogta, should demand answers from the City of Johannesburg.

Mayor Dada Morero should explain to Virginia Morapedi’s family — whose nephew is fighting for his life in hospital — why no municipal official has come to check if the Robot Tuckshop (the outlet where the boy allegedly bought the snacks) is complying with the law.

We should not wait for another child to die. The city must move with speed to make sure that only shops that adhere to food safety and municipal by-laws operate.

SowetanLIVE