'You created the problem': Gauteng residents react to GDE order to suspend sale of food at schools
While residents want the matter addressed urgently, some believe food vendors are being wrongfully punished.
FILE: Informal street vendors wait for clients in front of a wall that reads “BOOKED FOR EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) ” during a campaign rally at the Alexandra stadium in Johannesburg on 27 April 2024. Picture: EMMANUEL CROSET/AFP
JOHANNESBURG - Some Gauteng residents believe the removal of food vendors at schools will have a devastating impact on small businesses.
This is after the Gauteng Education Department instructed schools to suspend the sale of food as food contamination cases increase.
The department says this forms part of measures to curb the worrying cases.
More than 10 children have died in the province since October due to suspected food contamination.
READ: Lesufi joins call for regulation of spaza shops in Gauteng
This includes six children from Naledi in Soweto who consumed a restricted pesticide which was found in snacks they bought from a local spaza shop.
While residents want the matter addressed urgently, some believe food vendors are being wrongfully punished.
"The bigger elephant in the room is still the spaza shops and the manufacturer of these snacks – they mustn’t tell our mothers and sisters not to sell at the schools," one resident said.
"The Health Department, the Department of Education and related departments are the enemies. They should have dealt with this a long time ago – now they are just being reactive," another resident said.
"You are punishing our children because our children are used to having money when they go to school. You created the problem, now you are making your problem ours because you didn’t regulate the spaza shops."