The death of 22 children and the illness of others because of suspected poisoning is the result of a government system failure because of crippling state collapse at all levels, from the national departments of health, environment, education and the police, to provincial and municipal governments.
The toxic mix of corruption, incompetence and ignorance of elected officials and public servants, combined with a lack of accountability, has led to the chronic collapse of government departments, agencies and oversight institutions, which inevitably brings about government system failure once a tipping point is reached, which it has now in South Africa.
Government incompetence, ignorance, indifference, corruption and no accountability are deadly. Government system failure has resulted in rising incidents of infrastructure collapse, from broken bridges, devastating fires in neglected buildings, power and water outages to contamination and gas pipeline explosions.
South Africa has seen less and less enforcement of laws, whether health, food, hygiene, safety regulations or bylaws. Laws, regulations and rules have in many cases been captured, not enforced, because of corruption. In other cases, incompetent public servants and elected officials simply do not understand laws, regulations and rules and so cannot implement them, even if they may be honest.
Failure at city and municipal levels to keep clean cities, townships and villages has led to dirt, waste and grime. In these circumstances rodents have infested many areas — and pesticides are widely used by citizens to tackle these, given the fact that the government is not cleaning their living areas.
Incompetent, ignorant and neglectful elected officials and public services simply do not grasp how the dereliction of their duties affects the lives of citizens, communities and businesses and functioning of the state. Government system failure started with the deployment of the politically connected, without the appropriate skills to key positions at all levels of public services, SOEs and oversight institutions.
The distance between generously paid civil servants or elected officials and ordinary citizens is so vast, civil servants and officials are blind to the impact of their indifference, incompetence and corruption on the lives of citizens, functioning of job-creating businesses and health of communities, and how it undermines the functioning of the entire state.
Some of the poisoning has been attributed to the use of pesticides to deal with rodents. Failure at city and municipal levels to keep clean cities, townships and villages has led to dirt, waste and grime. In these circumstances rodents have infested many areas — and pesticides are widely used by citizens to tackle these, given that the government is not cleaning their living areas.
There has been a widespread failure to ensure health, sanitation, waste and environmental regulations are implemented. The regulation of health, sanitation, waste and environment laws has in some cases collapsed. Either because public servants, regulators and inspectors do not have the competence, or are bribed and not held accountable to perform their basic duties.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he would ensure companies that manufacture pesticides such as Terbufos will be scrutinised to “ensure that no products are diverted into the non-agricultural market, the supply-chain process for distribution and sale of Terbufos will be investigated to ensure that controls are being adhered to and that there is accountability for who they sell to”.
However, Ramaphosa’s response is a Band-Aid. Regulation 638 of the 2018 Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, which governs the hygiene requirements for food premises and the transport of food, are poorly implemented. Health inspectors are virtually non-existent whether in the formal or informal economy.
In 2017 and 2018, South Africa saw an outbreak of listeriosis at the Tiger Brands subsidiary Enterprise Foods’ meat-processing facility in Polokwane. There is currently a class-action lawsuit against Tiger Brands representing more than 1,000 claimants who suffered due to an outbreak of listeriosis. While Tiger Brands is in the dock for lack of care, government should also be in the dock for not enforcing health, sanitation and environmental laws.
Consumers in South Africa are also generally not protected, whether in the formal or informal sectors — and consumers do not have adequate protection against wrongdoing. Under the Consumer Protection Act, every consumer has the right to safe and quality goods that comply with health regulations. Under the Consumer Protection Act misleading product labels are illegal.
This week police reported they found expired food imports at a warehouse in Durban. This is clearly not an isolated case and shows again government's failure, this time at customs — whether because of incompetence, corruption or simply neglect.
In 2014, an investigation by the National Consumer Commission found widespread unlawful labelling of food by both formal retailers, such as Shoprite, Spar and OK Foods, and informal spaza shops. The National Consumer Commission concluded that because of misleading food labels, many customers are to likely to have unsuspectedly suffered diarrhoea, vomiting and, in severe cases, death.
National Consumer Commission inspectors in the 2014 investigation reported they found food labels being Tippexed out, labels being torn off, ingredient lists missing and homemade labels being placed on the original label containing a new, false expiry date.
The breakdown in rule of law — with the lack of enforcement of laws, regulations and rules — has given formal and informal companies the room to abuse consumers. Corruption, incompetence, ignorance, indifference and lack of accountability by public officials have created a culture where abuse of customers proliferates. These have created the environment for children to die by poisoning. The parents of the children, civil society and public interest lawyers should take government to court for multiple state failures.
William Gumede is associate professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg)
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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