The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Gauteng Legislature is pursuing answers on the lack of health inspectors in the Province, which we believe may be at the root of the food safety crisis among vendors and tuck-shops at and near schools.
The DA has put in legislature questions to MEC Mamabolo, for him to answer us about the number and location of health inspectors across the Province. We need answers on vacancies for health inspectors, and why these remain vacant.
A lack of health inspectors speaks directly to unsafe, unfit, or dangerous food, which is tragically killing children in the Province.
Gauteng learners must have access to food in a safe manner, and safety inspections should be conducted regularly to ensure compliance with food safety standards. But instead of proper, scheduled health and safety inspections, the Gauteng province has imposed a blanket ban on vendors who sell food at schools – this is unacceptable as it will destroy these small businesses.
Schools and vendors that are compliant with regulations and are properly licenced, should be allowed to continue their operations, and the department should focus its efforts on identifying those which are not meeting safety standards instead.
Instead of banning all vendors from operating in and around schools, the government must ensure that all vendors are compliant with the health and safety measures needed to prevent any contamination of food.
Reliable, and dedicated local vendors who want to be compliant with the new rules may not have enough time to do so before the start of the 2025 academic year, and this will have a perverse and unintended consequence: learners may now be forced to purchase their food, drinks and snacks from less scrupulous, non-compliant traders who swoop in to fill the gap.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), working in coordination with other departments and local health authorities, must have a more proactive approach in ensuring that all food vendors sell items that are safe to consume. And those who are safe must have an easy pathway to be certified or licensed.
It is high time that Premier Panyaza Lesufi and MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane, stop making populist statements on complex issues involving the life and death of our children.
It is clear from the incidents of food poisoning over the last few weeks that health and safety regulations are not being followed, and government is not doing its crucial job of inspecting and catching unsafe foods and food products, with local municipal health and safety departments too.
A DA government at Provincial level in Gauteng would fill health inspector vacancies immediately, to conduct regular inspections of spaza shops and vendors where food is sold.