CT authorities clamp down on unlicensed food manufacturing operation

City of Cape Town Mayco Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, has called on members of the public to report any cases of food being prepared under unhygienic conditions to the City of Cape Town authorities and police.

City of Cape Town authorities and police have arrested five people for allegedly running an unlicensed food manufacturing operation in the Mfuleni area.

After receiving a tip, authorities inspected the premises and they discovered sausage being processed and packaged in unsanitary conditions.

Smith says the facility was processing and packaging sausage in unhygienic conditions, posing a significant health risk to consumers.

He says the owner and four employees are suspected of being in the country illegally.

“We have now recently in South Africa seen on a number of occasions unsanitary or dangerous food that has been contaminated and has led to the deaths of people and it is not a complaint that you can ignore. So under these circumstances, the environmental health branch went to inspect and mobilised our enforcement services to assist them in responding to the situation,” says Smith.

“Because under the regulations they are violating [regulations] and we would charge them criminally in terms of those. So, there will be criminal prosecution, but in this particular case, they also were undocumented foreign nationals which led to them to be arrested and possible as a consequence to be deported,” he adds.

Smith says forensic experts are processing the contents for further testing.

“The violations are around environment health and food production when you operate a place where you prepare food, the place of preparation needs to have a certificate of acceptability issued by environmental health. So, their violations are around safety and health standards in national and local legislation and environment health would charge them with those, SAPS is also part of the operation.”

Residents have also weighed in on the unhealthy condition of the establishment.

Local resident Dingane Dyosi says, “Government officials were here to take the stuff, lock up the owner of this place. It’s a Xhosa mama. I don’t know these guys who are selling meat. So, I say the government must try to do their best of our children.”

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