Govt declares foodborne illnesses a national disaster

South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre has declared foodborne illnesses a national disaster, in response to countrywide sicknesses and deaths, particularly of children, in recent weeks.

The declaration was made under the Disaster Management Act, No. 57 of 2002.

On Thursday, Ministers in multidisciplinary teams responsible for the national response to foodborne illnesses held a media briefing in Pretoria, to outline government’s plan to manage foodborne diseases.

Justice Minister Thembi Simelane said the disaster classification encourages State entities, the private sector and communities to improve their risk-avoidance practices through adherence to food safety legislation, standards and procedures.

Government has also called on individuals to comply with applicable business registration legislation, standards and procedures.

Simelane pointed out that the classification recommended that the National Executives, respective Provincial Executives, and the respective Municipal Councils implement a multisectoral relief and rehabilitation plan to deal with the effects of the disaster.

Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the closure of spaza shops implicated in food-borne illnesses that had claimed the lives of 22 children in recent weeks and called for all spaza shops and food handling facilities to be registered with municipalities within 21 days.

He said any shop not registered within 21 days and that did not meet all health standards would be closed.

Ramaphosa pointed out that since the beginning of September, there had been a total of 890 reported incidents of food-borne illnesses across all provinces.

The ministerial team announced that it would in the next few days appoint health experts, who will serve in the Ministerial Advisory Committee, which is responsible for developing medium-to-long-term prevention measures to curb the incidents of foodborne illnesses in the country.

“The directive to notify the deaths of patients 12 years and below is a critical one and will be implemented as a matter of urgency. This will help us to understand the burden of disease and the population at risk in real time instead of waiting for a long period of time,” said the team.

The ministerial team assured that the shortage of environmental health inspectors was receiving urgent attention, as government tried to capacitate all districts and metropolitan municipalities to effectively enforce inspections across the country.

INSPECTIONS

Government has expressed concerns about surfacing allegations that suggest that some South Africans are assisting illegal foreign nationals to fraudulently comply with the requirements for business registration.

It also appealed to the members of the public not to disturb the process of registration by blocking certain shop owners from participating in the process, this included conducting unlawful inspections by members of the public, and other unauthorised bodies.

Lawful joint inspections are ongoing across the country, led by multi-disciplinary teams comprising experts and officials from various government departments, State bodies and law enforcement agencies.

The inspections include the food value chain from manufacturing, wholesale and transport, and the retail sector to monitor and enforce norms and standards for food safety.

“These inspections will be complemented by nationwide cleanup campaigns, which have already kicked off in the province of Gauteng and will be rolled out to other hotspot areas and the entire country,” the ministerial team added.

To succeed in this effort to rid the country’s environment of rat infestations, and other waste management challenges, the country is said to need a sustained partnership between government and society.

In the next few days, the Department of Agriculture will conduct inspections at all  five registered manufacturers of Terbufos to ascertain controls and to determine if markers are put into locally produced products to distinguish between illegally imported and locally produced chemicals.

The Department will also strengthen the work of the Biosecurity efforts, to support the control of the entry of products, organisms and other harmful biological products at the ports of entry.