PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa last night announced a wide range of government intervention in response to food-borne illnesses and deaths that have claimed the lives of scores of children.
In his address to the nation, Ramaphosa called upon South Africans to work together to overcome a great difficulty.
“At a time like this, we need to unite as a country and work together to end these deaths. We must do what it takes to make sure such tragedies never happen again,” he said.
Ramaphosa said since the beginning of September, there had been 890 reported incidents of food-borne illnesses across all provinces, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal being the most affected and Limpopo, Free State and Mpumalanga recording dozens of incidents.
Over the last few weeks alone, food-borne illnesses had claimed the lives of at least 22 children.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with their families as they go through the pain and the anguish of losing their children. Losing a child is something no parent should ever have to endure.”
He said as soon as the deaths occurred, multidisciplinary teams in government were activated.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases was asked to conduct scientific tests and had established that the deaths of the six children in Naledi, Soweto, could be directly attributed to a highly hazardous chemical used as a pesticide known as Terbufos.
“After stringent testing, a chip packet found on one of the children who had died had traces of Terbufos on the inside and the outside of the packet.
“As part of the investigation into the Naledi deaths, inspectors confiscated a number of illegal pesticides from spaza shops.
“They found instances where food was being stored alongside pesticides and detergents.”
Another chemical, Aldicarb, and an organophosphate known as Galephirimi were commonly sold by street vendors and hawkers to control rat infestations.
“The problem of rat infestation is due in part to poor waste management in several municipalities. Rubbish is not collected regularly, streets are not being cleaned, creating conditions for rats and other pests to thrive,” he said.
The president said the poorest communities were the worst affected and often the cheapest remedies were the highly hazardous substances like Terbufos and Aldicarb.
Ramaphosa said another challenge was that responsibility for environmental health that should happen in communities was the responsibility of local government.
“Many municipalities do not have the capacity and resources to conduct inspections of these businesses and enforce regulations.”
He said there was also a need to prevent the spread of misinformation.
“The investigations that have taken place do not suggest any deliberate campaign to poison children in our country. There is also no evidence that the problem is confined to spaza shops owned by foreign nationals only.
“All spaza shops and other food handling facilities must be registered within the municipalities in which they operate within 21 days from today. Any shop that is not registered within 21 days and does not meet all health standards and requirements will be closed.”
He added that SAPS and other law enforcement agencies would be required to investigate, arrest and prosecute offenders.
Ramaphosa said integrated multidisciplinary inspection teams would undertake compliance inspections of food handling facilities, manufacturers, distributors, wholesaler and retailers.
“Non-compliant businesses and shops linked to any poisoning incidents or found to unlawfully stock hazardous chemicals will be shut down.”
He said all registered manufacturers of Terbufos would be inspected to ensure that no products were diverted into the non-agricultural market.
“The Department of Basic Education will immediately issue a circular to provincial Education Departments and all schools on best practice protocols for preventing and managing food-borne illnesses within schools.”
He also said the Department of Basic Education and school governing bodies, with the Department of Health, would review and update the guidelines for schools on the management of suppliers of foodstuffs to public schools.
“This will include tuck shops operated at these schools.”
The ministers of Basic Education and Health and other government departments would classify certain pesticides and insecticides not suitable for home use as “dangerous objects” that may not be brought or used on school premises