LISTEN | Time to revive health inspectors, says Mashatile as children die of suspected food poisoning

“We’re intervening”, says deputy president Paul Mashatile after children died of suspected poisoning when allegedly eating products sold by spaza shops.

He said government must not be too lazy to regulate food.

Mashatile was asked in parliament if “the government has any urgent decisive measures to prevent the township economy being totally taken by foreigners”.

He said government was intervening to ensure food vendors were properly regulated.

“If you own a spaza shop you must be registered. This is something we must give priority to in our townships and everywhere else,” he said.

“The answer is: let’s regulate. Government must not be lazy. It’s our job. Regulation and enforcement,” Mashatile said, promising the health minister would “revive health inspectors”.

There have been several incidents of suspected food poisoning around the country. On Wednesday more than 100 pupils at Tamalo Primary school in Katlehong experienced stomach cramps and vomiting after consuming food at the school.

Twenty-four pupils from Enzani Primary School in Mpumalanga were rushed to hospital last month in another suspected spaza shop food poisoning incident.

At least 10 children have died of suspected poisoning in the past month.

According to the health department, the department is responsible for regulating food imports, and the manufacturing, sale and export of foodstuffs. The department is required by law to regulate all aspects of food sales, formal and informal, fixed and mobile, short and long term.

Around the same time last year, sales of fake food were rampant.

Quizzed more than a year later about last year's fake food reports, the department said it was working with “provincial and local government authorities and other stakeholders with regards to conducting inspections at food outlets to check compliance with relevant regulations and laws”.

The department is guided by the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics & Disinfectants Act, which mandates the minister to regulate safety, quality, labelling and regulatory nutrition of food. The minister has powers to authorise local authorities to enforce the regulations.

The health department told TimesLIVE: “Regulations have been in place that date back to the 1990s, but since the act was amended in 2008 and SA has become a member of the Joint Food and Agricultural Organisation and World Health Organisation Codex Alimentarius Commission, we have embarked on a process to update regulations to bring them in line with the new country dispensation as well as Codex and/or scientific developments.”

TimesLIVE