EDITORIAL | Fake-food factories must be a wake-up call for authorities

South Africans are a creative bunch, especially when it comes to making a buck. A stagnant economy has made sure of this.

In most cases, this creativity is an inspiring feat of triumph over adversity. But sadly some entrepreneurial skills also extend to the criminal sector. We were reminded of this by the shocking raid this week on a business that was found to be changing the expiry dates on a consignment of tinned pilchards.

The fact that South Africa is in the grip of a food contamination crisis that has seen 23 people die and hundreds, mostly children, hospitalised is unlikely to have given these hoodlums sleepless nights.

But it is a wake-up call for South African authorities, who should assume that these underground “fake food” factories are operating on a large scale across the country. Criminals never miss an opportunity.

At Monday's raid on the business in Daleside near Meyerton, police seized printing equipment used to alter expiration dates and a consignment of falsely labelled canned pilchards. Inside, seven illegal immigrants aged between 18 and 29 were found relabelling expired pilchards, changing old dates from 2021/22 to fake expiry dates of 2026. They were arrested, but the owner of the business remains at large.

This was not a one-off back room flustered effort to flog a few leftover tins that had not been sold. It was a fully-fledged business, complete with printing equipment and employees. Who knows how many tins of potentially dangerous food it has been responsible for putting on shop shelves?

The recent spate of food poisoning cases has highlighted the importance of absolute vigilance in ensuring that expired or contaminated food does not make it into food outlets. This is no easy task when dealing with a country like South Africa, which has a huge informal sector that is difficult to monitor and regulate.

Last week, in a knee-jerk reaction to the issue, the national department of cooperative governance gazetted new bylaws for municipalities to regulate the operations of spaza shops and other traders in townships. The regulations must be adopted by all councils to set standards for hygiene, among others, as well as penalties and law enforcement measures for those who do not comply. The registration process starts next month. Failure to comply will result in warnings followed by the cancellation of business licences.

Monitoring and enforcement are the responsibility of the relevant municipality. But do our municipalities have the capacity to adequately police the vast labyrinth of the informal economy? As we know all too well in South Africa, making laws is easy. Implementing them, not so much. Many municipalities have a woeful track record when it comes to implementing bylaws. Considering that lives are at stake, we hope that sufficient resources are made available to effectively clamp down on businesses that do not comply with regulations.

Communities can also play a role. Street vendors and spaza shops are the lifeblood of many communities. They serve an important role in the economy and create jobs. Their customers must hold them to account and report any lapses in quality or compliance.

On a wider scale, raids such as the one this week must continue, guided by solid police intelligence and investigation. South Africa has dropped the ball in terms of clamping down on most forms of organised crime , we cannot afford to do the same when it comes to our food supply. The lives of our children depend on it.