Food contamination 'goes far beyond spaza shops' in SA, Motsoaledi tells MPs

CAPE TOWN - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that preliminary information indicated that food contamination was more widespread than just at spaza shops.

Answering questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Motsoaledi said by and large, it was municipalities that had to shoulder the responsibility for inspecting the sale of foodstuffs.

Six children died in Naledi in Soweto recently after the snacks they ate from a spaza shop is believed to have been contaminated by a powerful chemical called terbufos, that is often used as a pesticide.

"I can assure you that there are very few municipalities who hire inspectors as per the act. The Johannesburg city where most of these issues are, has got only 80 health inspectors. That’s a droplet compared to the size of that city, and what needs to be done. Others don’t even have one, and that's the problem the country needs to solve, and we are busy with solutions for that."

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Motsoaledi said that municipalities were being encouraged to adopt new by-laws introduced by Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa this week to regulate the operation of spaza shops, as soon as possible.

But he said that shortcomings in the law that governed the National Consumer Commission also did not make it possible for a market-wide inquiry to be conducted when incidents such as the poisoning of children occured.

"There's nowhere that people won't be taken up if they are found to be guilty. That's why SAPS have sent a group of detectives. They’ve been there for the past three weeks to investigate this matter, to find out, did anybody become negligent or has it just happened accidentally. But I can assure you as I’m standing here because you are concentrating on spaza shops, the little information we have is that this problem goes far beyond spaza shops in the country."