Soweto spaza linked to boy's death 'not registered'

Maile’s warning came amid allegations that the owner of a shop, linked to the death of a child in Diepkloof, wanted to use the identity documents of his landlord to register the spaza shop.

President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the registration of all spaza shops within a 21-day period following a spate of food poisoning incidents that claimed the lives of more than 20 children in recent weeks.

Maile visited the bereaved family of five-year-old Siyabonga Mnisi on Thursday.

He died after eating contaminated snacks from a local spaza shop near his home. Three of his friends were hospitalised after eating the same snacks.

Authorities have since closed down the spaza shop. 

A similar incident occurred in Soweto last month, where six children, all under the age of 10, died after eating chips bought at a spaza shop in Naledi.

Maile said the spaza shop was found to be unhygienic and did not meet basic health and safety standards.

"The police will be confiscating the whole stock, because some of the items I've seen myself they have expired.”

Maile added that while Home Affairs officials confirmed the shop owner is in South Africa legally, his business has not yet been registered.

"Home Affairs said all those documents are illegal, meaning those people are here legally, though they are not South Africans, and being here legally does not mean you must run illegal operations.”

Maile said the Gauteng government will assist the family with funeral arrangements.

"It's a poor family and we agreed that we will work with the local leadership to ensure that we help them to organise a decent funeral.

"We must close shops like this one because people must also be educated and know which spaza shops they must buy from, which spaza shop not to buy from. Because to assume that all spaza shops are bad, I think it's not a fair criticism," he added.

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