By Simon Nare
The government has listed foodborne illnesses as a national disaster as the food contamination crisis continues to grow across the country.
Several children have died, with the latest death reported in Diepkloof in Gauteng on Wednesday. A five-year-old boy was vomiting and had diarrhea before he was taken to a local clinic where he was declared dead.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa told reporters in Pretoria that the declaration would make it easy and fast for the government to declare food-borne illnesses a national disaster if necessary.
He was speaking during a briefing by a multi-disciplinary task team comprising various ministers. It was set up to deal with the crisis.
They also announced that as part of their efforts to clamp down on the non-compliance of certain vendors, the government was implementing a R500 million fund for township and rural business owners.
Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Thembi Simelane said that the qualifying criteria was very specific. The businessowner had to be a South African citizen operating within the borders of the country and serving local communities.
“The business must be registered with the local municipality in accordance with the relevant by-laws and have valid registration with SARS,” Simelane said in a statement on behalf of the task team.
She said they were already hard at work setting up the fund.
‘The departments responsible for the joint fund are working on the guidelines and standard operating procedures on utilisation and accountability of the fund which will be completed in the next two weeks.
“In the short term, approved rural and township businesses will be supported through this fund to improve their infrastructure, regulatory compliance and capacity building,” the minister said.
On health interventions, it was announced that health experts would be appointed to serve on the Ministerial Advisory Committee and this process was at advanced stage.
The committee would be tasked with developing medium- to long-term prevention measures to curb incidents of foodborne illnesses.
It has been established that the pesticides contaminating the food have been banned. Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen said an investigation was underway to establish its origin.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that this pesticide was being sold everywhere by street vendors and shops.
The team also said it was aware of that some communities were stopping shop owners from registering their businesses, as stipulated by President Cyril Ramaphosa. They now have two weeks to register.
“We want to appeal to the members of the public not to disturb the process of registration by blocking certain shop owners from participating in the process, this includes conducting unlawful inspections by members of the public, and other unauthorised bodies,” it said.
Members of Operation Dudula were accused of wreaking havoc in Soweto this week. The City of Joburg had to stop registrations in Soweto.
The team added that lawful joint inspections were ongoing across the country.
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