EDITORIAL | Securing the borders is a task that needs to be taken seriously

After weeks of torment and shock over a spate of poisonings mainly affecting children who bought snacks from tuck shops, it turns out an illegal pesticide sold on the black market is to blame for the deaths of more than eight children in the past few weeks.

The suspicion was that the expiration of the food which was purchased at spaza shops was the cause. The Aldicarb chemical found in a pesticide called Temik is said to have been brought into the country and distributed, though this type of pesticide is officially banned in South Africa.

When the enforcement of the law fails, at face value it can be seen as mere incompetence from those who are meant to uphold it, but for those who were meant to be protected, it becomes a death sentence.

Take for example, the six Soweto children who died after allegedly eating snacks they purchased from a tuck shop — where was the law before they became casualties of poison ingestion?

What do the law enforcers have to say about the three Mdantsane children who died after allegedly eating porridge, also bought from a local spaza shop?

The dozens who were rushed to hospital over the past weeks, who was supposed to prevent them from this pain? Why do children have to bear the brunt of poor vetting, inspection, regulation and enforcement efforts?

Inasmuch as the police are the face of law enforcement, we must acknowledge that other law enforcement arms are not doing their job. From customs who are supposed to control what goods come in and go out of our borders, to the department of defence, which is responsible for securing the borders so that nothing is smuggled in illegally, including human beings.

Where were all these entities, which are funded with taxpayers’ money, when they failed to protect the citizens by clamping down on banned and illegal substances and chemicals that slipped through our borders into our households, killing our children?

The police, departments of trade and industry, health and small business have all equally failed to ensure that the operations of these spaza shops are legal and will not be harmful to the communities where they operate.

Is there even a plan to enforce regulations and clamp down on spaza shops selling illegal goods and operating illegally, resulting in the death and devastation of communities?

Though it is commendable that the preliminary finding was made on the cause of the deaths through the deployment of toxicology experts to Soweto by the department of health, it is equally disappointing that it took the lives of children for something to be done.

The outcry over porous borders has never been truer, as hazardous products easily come into the country without being detected.

Saving lives and ensuring the safety of people begins at the border, but it is a known fact that our borders are nowhere near sealed and properly protected. So who should we hold liable and accountable?

Is it the government that continues to fail in protecting its citizens, or those that take advantage of the government’s ineptness and profit from illegality made possible by poor enforcement of the law? Perhaps all of the above. The idea that a product that was banned in 2016 can still be found and bought should raise serious concerns.

The World Health Organization classified Aldicarb as “extremely hazardous”, so how is it still being made available, even if informally? It is not enough to find out what went wrong, this should sound a call for more stringent control of what comes in and goes out of the country.

It is not an exaggeration that poor law enforcement is a death penalty, it is in fact something that keeps playing out in the affected communities and proving itself through such incidents.

As citizens, we entrust our resources in the hands of the government with the understanding that their first and main priority is the safety and wellbeing of us, the citizens.

However, as we see more and more of these stories, we are reminded that perhaps the people we have entrusted with our lives do not have a vested interest in the protection of our lives.

Perhaps they are preoccupied with enriching their own lives and protecting themselves from the responsibility of true leadership.

What is clear from the events of these past few days is that we are on our own and we need to be more vigilant about what our children consume, and where they buy it from, and look out for symptoms of poisoning early because no-one else is coming to save us.

Securing the borders is equivalent to saving lives. This is a task that needs to be taken seriously.