Dear Editor
Tonight’s address by President Cyril Ramaphosa on food-borne illness is a first step towards addressing a tragic state of affairs, which should not have been allowed to happen.
The fact that food borne illness has left 22 children dead in South Africa is a tragedy the DA sincerely grieves. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the families who have lost loved ones.
In particular, the DA supports the call to conduct door-to-door inspections of all spaza shops, to ensure that products sold to consumers, and the facilities themselves, meet all health and safety standards.
We are also concerned about whether there are sufficient resources to meet the 21-day deadline till cometh this task.
We call on the Presidency to engage Provincial Governments to increase the number of permanently employed Environmental Health Practitioners (EHP), as current statistics show that only 1712 EHP’s are employed, when 6203 would be required to ensure adequate coverage.
Failing to address this shortfall may potentially result in recurrence of the current situation. We agree with the President’s assessment that poor service delivery in certain parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal may have added to this situation, due to unclean and unhygienic environments which become a haven for rats and other pests.
Tracing the source of the chemicals that are being illegally utilised in spaza shops is a crucial step towards dealing with this crisis. Hazardous chemicals should not be sold on the streets, or informal markets, and law enforcement is crucial to preventing this.
We welcome the President’s commitment to bolstering law enforcement in this regard, to ensure the safety of children, and all consumers.
Spaza shops provide a much-needed service to consumers in South Africa, and this multi-billion rand informal economy provides convenient access to daily necessities. We welcome the call to register all spaza shops, and ensure that they meet basic health standards, and comply with South African law.
Earlier calls for a blanket ban would have ultimately hurt South Africans who rely on these stores. Banning established vendors or food providers, instead of inspecting and regulating them, creates a vacuum for unscrupulous sellers to fill the gap with even more dangerous goods.
The DA in the Government of National Unity will ensure we do all we can to assist efforts to overcome the current crisis, and that there is no recurrence of these tragic events.
Regards
Willie Aucamp MP
DA National Spokesperson