Public protector Kholeka Gcaleka wants to be part of investigations to food-borne deaths and illnesses to hold those in public office accountable.
We have written to different municipalities and different departments, asking them to be part of their investigation. What we will do during the investigation is take notes and then issue a report.
— Khulu Phasiwe
Gcaleka's spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said the public protector's office has a mandate to ensure that various department do their work efficiently to get to the bottom of the cause of food contamination across the country.
On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a total of 890 incidents of food-borne illness have been reported across the country since September. He said 22 children had died from the crisis.
Said Phasiwe: "We have written to different municipalities and different departments, asking them to be part of their investigation. What we will do during the investigation is take notes and then issue a report.
"We don't have the mandate to investigate but we have a mandate to hold public representatives accountable. For example, there have been reports through media that these guys [shop owners] are sleeping inside the shops. When we find this kind of issue, we will take it with the relevant department to ask them what are they doing with the issue."
Ramaphosa said the national institute for communicable diseases was "requested to conduct scientific tests and has established that the deaths of the six children in Naledi, Soweto, [in October] can be directly attributed to a highly hazardous chemical used as a pesticide known as Terbufos".
"After stringent testing, a chip packet found on one of the children who had died had traces of Terbufos on both the inside and the outside of the packet. As part of the investigation into the Naledi deaths, inspectors confiscated a number of illegal pesticides from spaza shops," Ramaphosa said.
He ordered that all tuck shops be registered within 21 days and failure to do so will be closed.
"The spaza shops which have been implicated in the deaths of children will be closed with immediate effect. Any shop that is not registered within 21 days and does not meet all health standards and requirements will be closed."
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