Spaza shops forum doesn't believe interventions will solve the crisis

Bayanda Radebe from the Ratanda Spaza Shops Forum doesn't believe President Cyril Ramaphosa's interventions to deal with the spate of food poisoning cases will solve the problem but will only worsen it. 

He said the measures suggested by the president showed he was “completely detached” from the everyday experiences of spaza shop owners. 

“For me, it was nothing but just a PR exercise. It proves again that the president we have in this country is not a proactive leader but rather a reactive leader.

“Some of the measures he believes will be a remedy to the crisis we know are just there so it will look like they are working as government and doing something about this pressing matter,” Radebe said. 

On Friday night, Ramaphosa announced measures the government will implement in response to the growing number of cases of food-borne illness in the country. In his address to the nation, Ramaphosa said the state needed to regulate spaza shops operating in communities to ensure health protocols are followed. 

Among the measures he said the government would implement was that all spaza shops and other food handling facilities must be registered in the municipalities in which they operate within 21 days. Any shop not registered within 21 days and not meeting all health standards and requirements would be closed.

Ramaphosa said 22 children had died from food poisoning. Since the beginning of September, there have been 890 reported incidents of food-born illnesses in all provinces.

Six children in Naledi died of Terbufos ingestion after purchasing snacks from a spaza shop. 

Radebe said the president's assertion, using a blanket approach and indicating that citizens were being misinformed as the pesticides were not only found in foreign-owned spaza shops, made him sound like he was being lenient to the people who have perpetrated crimes. 

“I have not heard about the legal measures they have planned to put in place to prosecute the people who have sold these poisonous substances to our people,” he said. 

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