{"id":282830,"date":"2024-11-12T11:23:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T03:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=282830"},"modified":"2024-11-12T11:23:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T03:23:39","slug":"south-africa-food-borne-poisoning-claims-23-lives-mainly-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=282830","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Food borne poisoning claims 23 lives, mainly children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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GAUTENG (South Africa), Nov 12 (NNN-SANEWS) — Twenty-three people in Gauteng have died as a result of food borne-related poisoning after consuming food from spaza shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority of the deaths have been children between the ages of six and nine.

This is according to Premier Panyaza Lesufi who updated residents on the implementation of by-laws to govern spaza shops.

\u201cThe first uniform approach across the province was to adopt a mechanism of reporting because we have so many deaths that are taking place that we want to isolate those that are food borne and those that need our immediate attention.

\u201cThe Department of Health has been given that task. They\u2019ve given us their preliminary report, and in that report, they\u2019ve indicated that the deaths that have been registered thus far. Today, we can confirm that we are at 23 [deaths] which is a sad thing,\u201d he said.

He added that a large number of the incidents occurred within schools with the rest being within the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, at least 441 cases of food poisoning have been reported throughout the province.

\u201cSome of the people were either discharged or they just showed the symptoms of vomiting, stomach aches and related,\u201d Lesufi said.

The Premier said from now on, the provincial government will \u201cdevelop a template\u201d that will be used by medical facilities, schools and community centres so that the province \u201ccan be in a position to track the areas that need immediate attention\u201d.

\u201cThe Department of Health\u2026will then develop a common template that will be utilised as a mechanism and then we\u2019ll utilise the law enforcement agencies in terms of the cases that they have to ensure that we have the right figures.

\u201cTo us this is important because that becomes the base level of understanding the problem and it becomes the area in which we can record, trace and where intervention is needed, we can be in a position to make that intervention.\u201d

Lesufi told the media that the provincial government has taken the decision to ban an agricultural pesticide that has been found to be at the root of some of the deaths.

\u201cThe MEC for Agriculture [Vuyiswa Ramokgopa] will formulate the approach on how to deal with that substance. We have agreed\u2026that that substance is banned in our province and that it must not be found in any shops, it must not be found in any informal traders and that the law enforcement agencies will assist us to eliminate it where possible.

\u201cBut those that are authorised\u2026the Department of Agriculture will be the institution that will give the licensing and the permission to utilise that,\u201d he said.

The Premier added that because by-laws across municipalities are different in managing businesses \u2013 including spaza shops \u2013 a new uniform approach will be used.

\u201cWe have now formally adopted a draft gazette that was signed by the Minister of CoGTA [Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa]. All municipalities in our province, without exception, will now adopt this gazette. These are new by-laws that have been developed nationally.\u00a0

\u201cThese by-laws explain how to register a business, how business should conduct themselves and all those related matters. [This] makes it easier for law enforcement agencies to monitor.

\u201cThe next resolution we have taken is the registration of businesses. All businesses \u2013 especially that are affecting the issue of our children \u2013 have to re-register. That\u2019s the process that will also empower those that want to open or operate businesses, but they don\u2019t have the financial muscle or the facilities,\u201d he said.

Lesufi announced that stakeholder meetings are expected to be held to discuss the challenges.

Speaking at the District Development Model (DDM) Presidential Imbizo on Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa assured the public that the issue is being addressed at the highest levels of government.\u00a0

In his address, President Ramaphosa highlighted government’s serious approach to the matter.\u00a0

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) said it was working with the Department of Health to develop safety guidelines for schools to effectively mitigate the risks of organophosphate pesticide exposure in school environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GAUTENG (South Africa), Nov 12 (NNN-SANEWS) — Twenty-three people in Gauteng have died as a result of food borne-related poisoning after consuming food from spaza shops. The majority of the deaths have been children between the ages of six and nine. This is according to Premier Panyaza Lesufi who updated residents on the implementation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":282831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282832,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282830\/revisions\/282832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/282831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}