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Operation Dudula plans to take legal action against the government, accusing it of failing to adequately address food contamination cases allegedly linked to foreign-owned spaza shops.
The group said it intends to file a case in the high court before December.
Operation Dudula’s national organiser, Davis Magolego said the organisation was “unhappy” with the government’s approach to dealing with the food contamination cases, he said, particularly with shops owned by foreign nationals.
Magolego said that businesses owned by foreigners should only be allowed to operate if they invested R5 million in the economy.
He said this was according to the Immigration Act No 13 of 2002, which pertains to a person who intends on investing in the South African economy by establishing a business or by investing in an existing business in the country, and must apply for a business visa.
But Sharon Ekambaram, the manager for the refugee and migrant rights programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, said that according to the department of home affairs, asylum seekers and refugees have the right to work, and this includes spaza shops.
She said foreign nationals would need an asylum permit or a refugee permit, or a passport or business visa to register a business in South Africa, which includes a spaza shop.
“All these are accepted in the process of documentation. There is a fee but that is charged to anyone registering a business.”
On 15 November, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced interventions in response to the rising number of food contamination cases in the country — 890 since the beginning of September.
The justice and constitutional development minister, Thembi Simelane, on 21 November, declared the issue of foodborne illnesses a national state of disaster, in which “measures to standardise municipal by-laws regulating businesses will be expedited to clamp down on the problem.”
The main intervention Ramaphosa introduced was the immediate closure of the spaza shops implicated in the deaths of six children in Naledi, Soweto, in October.
He confirmed that the National Institute for Communicable Diseases had established that their deaths were caused by the organophosphate Terbufos. He added that based on samples taken from 84 spaza shops in the Naledi area, three had traces of Terbufos.
Last week, two children died of suspected food poisoning, the Gauteng education department confirmed.
One was a grade R boy from Dumezweni Primary School in Diepkloof, Soweto, who died on 20 November “due to suspected foodborne illness”.
The other was an eight-year-old grade 2 learner from Thabisile Primary School in Diepkloof, who died on 22 November.
“According to our information at our disposal, it is alleged that the learner fell ill on Wednesday, 20 November 2024, after reportedly consuming biscuits from a local spaza shop,” the department said.
Ramaphosa also announced that all spaza shops and other facilities that handle food must be registered with municipalities within 21 days, failing which they will be closed, while a door-to-door inspection of all spaza shops, tuck shops and other informal traders will be undertaken.
He said the problems are not confined to spaza shops owned by foreign nationals.
Magolego said that although the government should inspect all spaza shops, they shouldn’t just shut down the ones that were implicated, but should shut down all and also should go to the source at where the contaminated goods are purchased.
“They are not dealing with this matter decisively. They are massaging this matter. You can’t say only those spaza shops where the ones that sold expired goods or poisonous foods to our children must be the ones that are getting closed. What about the others?
“Because now, if you can see this thing, we’ve lost kids in Limpopo, we lost kids in the Free State, we’re losing children in Gauteng, all over these nine provinces. It means that these people are selling wrong things to our children. To us as well, because it’s not only kids who are dying due to this fake food and contaminated foods and poisonous food, even others.”
Ekambaram said the government should have increased the number of environmental health inspections across the entire food industry after the listeriosis outbreak in 2017 and 2019. The outbreak was caused by contaminated processed meat produced at a single facility owned by Enterprise Foods and resulted in 216 deaths .
“Many people report food poisoning after eating at a restaurant. But in the informal economy, the state should be making provisions to assist working class communities to ensure they can comply with health standards.”
She said given that many people depend on the informal economy for their livelihoods, the government should ensure the working conditions are safe and lives are not placed at risk.
Gauteng’s MEC for economic development and finance, Lebogang Maile, said the re-registration of spaza shops is under way in the province’s 11 municipalities, despite capacity issues.
“There will never be enough capacity but we have been dealing with that in all municipalities,” he said, adding his department will update the public on the progress of re-registrations ahead of the 13 December deadline.
He said the president would provide a directive if businesses do not register by then, adding that those who are obtaining licences illegally — for example, South Africans registering businesses for foreigners or selling licences illegally — will “face the consequences”.
“We have outlined the process, the requirements, and the national government has spoken about all the bylaws. That law must be enforced.”
He added that Operation Dudula is within its rights to take government to court.