Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦

He's a pedophile who needs to be locked up!

This is a disgrace. If Donald Trump had the courage to accuse my government of "racism", he can have the courage to help his own citizens.

I offer my warm congratulations to the Prime Minister-Elect of Mauritius on his return to high office after his success as an opposition leader in Mauritius’s recent election.

We must check that food is prepared in a clean and hygienic area.

We must make sure that foodstuffs being sold have clear branding and labels, and that they are not past their sell-by date.

As we undertake these interventions and measures, there is a lot that we can do as parents to protect our children.
As consumers and parents, if we buy food or send our children to buy food, it must only be from places that are licensed to sell foodstuffs and that observe food safety regulations.

The funding will be for the refurbishment of businesses and non-financial support in terms of technical skills, regulatory compliance and capacity building.

- A joint fund of R500 million will be established by the Departments of Trade, Industry and Competition and Small Business Development to support townshipand rural businesses, including community convenience shops.

- The Department of Agriculture is in the process of reviewing and updating all relevant legislation with respect to the regulation and authorisation of agricultural pesticides for use in South Africa.

- The work of the Biosecurity Hub will be strengthened to better control the entry of products, organisms and harmful biological products at ports of entry

- An electronic medical certification of death system will be established to allow the National Department of Health to access cause of death information immediately after a death is certified.

- All deaths of patients 12 years and below will be made notifiable in the Notifiable Medical Condition Surveillance System.

- A Ministerial Health Advisory Committee is being established to develop medium- and long-term prevention measures. This Committee will consist of experts such as toxicologists, paediatricians, chemical pathologists, epidemiologists, forensic pathologists and others.

Failure to comply will result in strict sanctions that include directives, compliance notices and criminal enforcement.

- Our local municipalities will be required to take urgent action to address the problem of rat infestations bycleaning cities and towns and removing waste. All municipal landfill sites will be required to comply with National Environmental Management Waste Act.

The third intervention will be aimed at preventing future outbreaks:

- I have directed that Joint Operational and Intelligence Structures be established at a national and provincial level to deal with this crisis.

This will be undertaken in terms of the Regulations on Safety Measures for Public Schools.

- The Ministers of Basic Education and Health and other government departments will classify certain pesticides and insecticides not suitable for home use as “dangerous objects” that may not be brought or used on school premises.

- This will be complemented by a public education campaign aimed at communities, spaza shops, tuck shops, informal traders and other retailers on health, safety and hygiene regulations, the identification of hazardous products, regulations that apply to hazardous products and legal consequences.

- An education campaign will be launched aimed at children, caregivers and the community on food safety and the identification, handling and storage of dangerous chemicals. This campaign will involve GCIS, government departments and agencies, industry organisations and civil society formations.

- By the start of the new school year, the Department of Basic Education and School Governing Bodies, with the Department of Health, will review the guidelines for schools on the management of suppliers of foodstuffs to public schools. This will include tuck shops operated at these schools.

The second intervention is about the protection of children from exposure to harmful substances:

- The Department of Basic Education will immediately issue a circular to Education Departments and all schools on best practice protocols for preventing and managing foodborne illnesses within schools.

- Integrated multidisciplinary inspection teams will undertake compliance inspections of food handling facilities, manufacturers, distributors, wholesaler and retailers. This will include spaza shops and general dealers.

- The South African Police Service and other law enforcement agencies will be required to investigate, arrest and prosecute offenders. This will involve close cooperation with all registered manufacturers and suppliers.

- All spaza shops and other food handling facilities must be registered within the municipalities in which they operate within 21 days from today. Any shop that is not registered within 21 days and does not meet all health standards and requirements will be closed.

The following measures will be implemented with immediate effect.

To get hazardous pesticides off the street:

- The spaza shops which have been implicated in the deaths of children will be closed with immediate effect.

The second critical intervention is to protect children from exposure to these substances.

The third critical intervention is to prevent future outbreaks.

Following the special meeting of Cabinet, we have decided to make the following interventions:

The first intervention is to get hazardous pesticides off the street.

These products are just as likely to be sold in shops owned by South Africans.

We all have a duty – as the State, as a society, as parents and families – to protect those among us who are most vulnerable.

We need to prevent the spread of misinformation.

The investigations that have taken place do not suggest any deliberate campaign to poison children in our country.

There is also no evidence that the problem is confined to spaza shops owned by foreign nationals only.

Our response must therefore address all the factors that contribute to the problem.