Gauteng acting premier in Katlehong following recent food poisoning cases
On Monday morning, Gauteng’s acting premier, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, announced her visit to families affected by recent incidents of suspected food poisoning in the Ekurhuleni metro.
Three children lost their lives, while 32 pupils from Setsing primary school in Tokoza were recently hospitalised and later discharged.
“The acting premier will be accompanied by the MEC for Finance and Economic Development Lebogang Maile, and the MEC for Education and Sports, Arts, Culture, and Recreation, Matome Chiloane, who have been at the forefront of coordinating the Gauteng provincial government’s response to this deadly scourge of food poisoning across the province,” said the spokesperson for the Office of the Premier, Sizwe Pamla.
This visit comes after calls by Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile for a state of emergency during a visit to the family of a 10-year-old girl from Alexandra who died allegedly after eating snacks from a local spaza shop.
“It can’t be that every week we bury a child because of this lawlessness and these unfortunate criminal activities taking place in these spaza shops. This appears to have escalated to a crisis which the president, hopefully, will have to declare as a state of emergency,” he said.
READ MORE: Maile visits Alex family after girl dies of suspected food poisoning
Civic organisation Not in My Name International has backed Maile’s call for the president to declare a state of emergency over the increased cases of child deaths linked to spaza shops.
“Not In My Name International calls upon the government to declare a state of emergency regarding all goods sold in spaza shops.
“We further call on South Africans, especially those who reside in the townships, to mobilise themselves and peacefully help the foreign spaza shop owners to pack and leave their communities. This will not only save lives, but it will also return the township economy to its rightful owners,” said Secretary General Themba Masango.
Masango accused the government of standing on the sidelines of a “biological warfare on South African bodies”.
Last month, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that a toxicology report confirmed Terbufos, an organophosphate chemical, caused the deaths of six children in Naledi.
Before Motsoaledi, Gauteng police commissioner Tommy Mthombeni said that traces of a chemical used to kill insects had been found on samples of food sold at two spaza shops in Naledi.
At the time of Motsoaledi’s report, more than 207 cases of food poisoning and ten deaths have been reported in Gauteng since February.
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