President Ramaphosa’s food poisoning address draws mixed reactions

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on Friday evening has been met with mixed reactions from some political parties. President Ramaphosa addressed the nation on various measures to tackle the rise of food poisoning seen in the country.

Over the last few months, various cases have emerged of young children, in particular falling victim to unhygienic food practices, often resulting in casualties.

Political parties such as the African Transformation Movement (ATM), Democratic Alliance (DA), and Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) have criticised the Government’s slow call to action thus far. 

On Friday evening, President Ramaphosa addressed the nation on the various measures set out by the presidency to tackle the growing food poisoning crisis. One such measure is an order that all implicated spaza shops are to be closed with immediate effect. 

“To get hazardous pesticides off the street, we now have directed that the spaza shops which have been implicated in the deaths of children must be closed with immediate effect. All spaza shops and other food handling facilities must be registered within the municipalities in which they operate within 21 days from today. Any shop that is not registered within 21 days and does not meet all health standards and requirements will be closed. South African police service and other law enforcement agencies will be required to investigate, arrest, and prosecute offenders,” said the President in his address. 

Ramaphosa attributed the use of hazardous chemicals and substances to rat infestations in municipalities, because of poor waste management by local governments, “Another challenge is that responsibility for environmental health that should happen in our communities is the responsibility of the Local Government. Many municipalities do not have the capacity and resources to conduct inspections of these businesses and enforce regulations. “ 

However, the DA said that President Ramaphosa should prioritise sustainable checking methods on the ground. “We also call on President Ramaphosa, for him to work with provincial governments to ensure that we have permanently employed environmental health practitioners. Because statistics show that currently, we have just over 2 thousand of these practitioners when in fact we need over 6 thousand of them to adequately address this problem,” says Karabo Khakhau.  

Meanwhile, the ATM felt that the government had been too slow to act in curbing the ongoing food poisoning crisis. ATM National Spokesperson Zama Ntshona says, “We do not reject the points of emphasis that are made, but truly, it would have been prudent for this government to actually from the first thousand times,  we had outbreaks to learn something and strengthen systems.  Only now that communities are up and raising these issues sharply and leading and leading the cause without their government that the government is coming to the party.” 

The FF Plus has criticised officials on all levels for their lack of accountability. FF Plus Leader Pieter Groenewald says, “The crisis in terms of food poisoning for our children and the death of many of the children is typical of crisis management. We first wait till there’s a huge crisis before we act. It is the responsibility of municipalities to ensure that when there are food stalls or any other type of structure where food is sold, that it must comply with health regulations.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a joint R500-million fund by the Departments of Trade, Industry and Competition and Small Business Development to address this crisis.