Police directed to focus on food manufacturers as Gauteng seeks to get handle on food safety incidents

JOHANNESBURG - As investigations continue into the deaths of three Katlehong pupils on Joburg's East Rand, a mandate has been given for police to focus on food manufacturers.

Last week, two siblings and another child died after allegedly consuming snacks from two spaza shops.

They were among a group of 29 pupils who fell sick due to a food-borne illness at Sonqoba Primary School.

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Acting Premier and MEC for Roads and Transport Kedibone Diale-Tlabela visited the families on Tuesday, saying communities needed to be wary of allowing their children to consume foods from spaza shops.

"We are calling upon parents and communities to temporarily, until we have a solution, create awareness with children, maybe refrain from buying from spaza shops, especially products that we don’t know where they are manufactured and make sure that we protect our children."

She said that teams had been tasked to track down the manufacturers of certain products that were not known locally.

"There’s a need for further investigations. We should not only look at spaza shops but to look at who are the manufacturers of the products and how are they manufacturing their products."