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A spaza shop in South Africa.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has convened an urgent meeting with 54 municipalities to discuss spaza shops. At least 23 people have died countrywide since the start of October after buying food from spaza shops.
In KwaZulu-Natal, three siblings from the Ndlovu family from uMzumbe on the South Coast, died from suspected food poisoning after eating a meal bought at a spaza shop.
Ntuli says the provincial government is taking a zero tolerance approach to spaza shop owners who are selling counterfeit goods which put communities at risk.
“Even though postmortem results are yet to confirm the actual cause of death, it is alleged that the victims fell ill and passed away because of food poisoning. It is reported that even the family dog (that) had eaten the same food and died. The three victims are children aged 2, 6 and 11 years old.”
Meanwhile, Ntuli is calling on all municipalities to ensure that environmental health inspectors visit spaza shops to make sure that the food sold there is safe to eat.
“Our message is clear, we will not allow illegal operations and spaza shops to jeopardise the lives of the people of KZN. Working together with SAPS Provincial Police Commissioner Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and the Border Management Agency (BMA), provincial government will continue to conduct unannounced operations against illegal foreigners operating spaza shops to check the quality of the goods they sell. We will further engage municipalities to collaborate with KwaZulu-Natal government in an effort to get back spaza shops owned by undocumented foreign nationals to the people of KwaZulu-Natal,” says Ntuli.
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