Authorities refute cockroach outbreak but CropLife SA stands by its research
Image: 123rf/Gan Chaonan
The department of health says there is no cockroach outbreak in South Africa.
The department has refuted reports that the country is experiencing a flare — up of cockroach infestations.
Last week, CropLife SA, an NPO that advocates for use of legal pesticides among other things, issued an alert about a “near pandemic” outbreak of German cockroaches throughout the country, with Gauteng, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal most affected due to the humid and wet conditions this past summer.
Departmental spokesperson Foster Mohale said there was no outbreak because their monitoring teams have not reported any outbreak.
“The department has received multiple media inquiries on this and we would have announced an outbreak of any nature and this is done by no-one else but the minister. No private organisation can announce an outbreak,” he said.
“The NICD [National Institute for Communicable Diseases] would have also communicated with the department and we have had no alert. And if the outbreak is not within our scope of work, another government department would have announced [it].”
CropLife SA’s operational manager Gerhard Verdoorn insisted their research had found a problem, particularly in densely populated areas.
He said the research was sparked by multiple calls for help from members of the public complaining about cockroaches they were struggling to get rid of.
According to the report, Kempton Park and areas around the airport were highly infested. Areas such as Tzaneen and Giyani in Limpopo were obvious cases due to their tropical weather patterns.
“Contrary to what people may believe, we found affluent areas were also struggling with cockroaches. I was surprised to see an area such as Sandton was also affected because we received many calls from there.”
He insisted their research was correct and contrary views should be followed up by research.
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