EDITORIAL | Blitz is good, but long-term strategy is key to ending contaminated snack deaths in SA

Children dying and falling ill after eating contaminated spaza shop snacks is a crisis getting top priority now, but the problem will persist without a long-term plan.

This is a tragedy that is, largely, preventable yet also finds some of its roots in service delivery shortfalls by municipalities.

Government intervention to protect consumers, in response to the deaths of at least 22 children, by insisting informal shops comply with improved health and safety standards, is to be applauded. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday gave spaza shops and food handling facilities 21 days to meet the regulations and register with their municipality. Non-compliant businesses, those stocking hazardous chemicals or implicated in poisoning incidents would be shut down, he said. Regulations and protocols on the traceability, repackaging, destruction and sale of pesticides, insecticides and foodstuffs would be strengthened — a move we welcome.  

Taking decisive action was necessary, but one has to wonder how many vendors will have the resources to complete the onerous paperwork and comply with the new standards within 21 days, as announced by Ramaphosa. Documents must be prepared including IDs, passports, permits or visas, proof of business location, postal addresses, and an application form must be obtained and completed. The various documents must be submitted in person at a designated place, including health, fire and safety certificates and proof of financial standing or tax clearance certificates. The list goes on. Some establishments will need to confirm they comply with zoning and building regulations.

Many questions remain. What if a vendor operates on foot and does not have a “shop”? Will the paperwork prove to be too tedious or will applicants, especially in rural areas, be able to afford to travel and present documents in person? If not, will they ignore the rules?

Or will the new regulations to save lives cost scores of jobs on the other side of the coin as informal traders close their doors and are plunged into poverty? Faced with that choice, will there be a backlash?

National Informal Traders Alliance president Rosheda Muller said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika that complying with the 21-day deadline would be “impossible”.
“Tuck shops are operating in every little town. In Soweto alone there are about 1,000 and that is only one part. We must be realistic about what we're doing and what we're saying because to register a business and to get the food certificate, the compliance, is not going to happen overnight.”

She added that municipal officials did not have the capacity and health inspectors were hardly seen in markets. 

The second stumbling block is the ability, or inability, of municipalities to register spaza shop owners correctly and under tight time constraints. Barely a day passes without revelations about municipalities unable to deliver basic services such as potable water. Many don't have the resources or staff to enforce health and safety standards — which is why many township residents resorted to using hazardous chemicals to control rats in the first place.

The other danger is the crackdown inflames xenophobic tensions. Sister publication SowetanLIVE reported on chaos and confusion when spaza shop owners arrived at Jabulani Civic Centre in Soweto in the (false) hope of registering on Monday, but Operation Dudula members barred immigrant spaza shop-owners, accusing them of stealing jobs. Cars driven by Pakistani, Ethiopian and Somali traders were chased and pelted with bottles.  

Ramaphosa said there would be a huge campaign of door-to-door inspections of all spaza shops, tuck shops and informal traders, starting in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Inspection teams would include the South African Military Health Service, environmental health practitioners, SAPS, the National Consumer Commission, labour inspectors and other officials. 

But once the initial blitz is over, it will be critical for municipalities, supported by provinces, to ensure they have the resources and capacity to enforce health and safety regulations.

They will have to control the proliferation of rats on their streets, ensure refuse is collected and bylaws are enforced.