Tiger Brands in talks to fund listeriosis victims with urgent medical needs

'This is regardless of the fact that liability has not yet been determined'

30 October 2024 - 20:36
By Ernest Mabuza
Tiger Brands says it is committed to working diligently to bring the listeriosis class action to a close as speedily as possible. Stock photo.
Image: 123rf/ Andrey Starostin ROTTEN STORY Tiger Brands says it is committed to working diligently to bring the listeriosis class action to a close as speedily as possible. Stock photo.

Tiger Brands says its attorneys are talking to lawyers of more than 1,100 listeriosis victims on relief to qualifying individuals who have urgent medical needs. 

The company said on Wednesday this was regardless of the fact that liability has not yet been determined. 

Between 2017 and 2018, there was a deadly listeriosis outbreak with 1,060 laboratory-confirmed cases reported by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and 216 deaths. The NICD identified Tiger Brands’ Enterprise Foods factory in Polokwane as the source of the listeriosis outbreak in 2018.

Richard Spoor Inc launched a class action against Tiger Brands in 2018.

In an update on Wednesday, Tiger Brands said the legal representatives were engaging on measures to arrive at a speedier resolution of the class action overall. 

“The company is committed to working diligently to bring the listeriosis class action to a close as speedily as possible.” 

Tiger Brands said since February 2022, the parties had continued with pretrial preparations, including discovery of documents and records relevant to the class action as required in terms of the rules of court, to get the matter ready for trial for the court to determine liability.

“A trial date will be allocated by court once all these pretrial preparations have been fully attended to,” the company said. 

As part of an overall endeavour to expedite the resolution of the class action, in January 2023 the attorneys representing the company and its insurers and Richard Spoor Inc jointly approached the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) for access to their records relevant to the listeriosis outbreak.

“These records are vital to a determination of liability.” 

The company said in January 2024, the NICD released the so-called FASTQ files with some data relating to their investigation of the outbreak to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

“The files were shared with the company’s attorneys in February 2024 for review by their appointed experts. The experts’ review of the data is at an advanced stage but remains ongoing,” said the company.

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