by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOME South African politicians accused of being opportunistic are again stoking xenophobic flames in the country by making the most of the death of 23 children from alleged food poisoning to boost their profile.
It is believed the children have died from consuming snacks bought from so-called spaza shops, mostly owned by foreign nationals.
This has sparked lawlessness with most of these shops vandalized and looted, especially in the townships.
The former mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, is again at the centre of the controversy by accusing spaza shops of selling illicit products, including tobacco and liquor.
“We are coming for them (foreigners), one by one. Spazas are for locals,” Mashaba stated.
He now leads the smaller opposition Action SA. Authorities are accused of targeting foreign owned shops with raids, and not carrying similar crackdowns on ones owned by locals.
In response, foreign nationals living in South Africa have urged local politicians to stop politicising the tragedy.
They claim a smear campaign against the foreign nationals.
Ethiopian, Pakistani and Somali nationals are major players in the booming spaza shop sector.
Those who spoke to CAJ News Africa appealed to politicians to allow law enforcement and the department of health to investigate, before speculating.
“If indeed these claims truly link foreign nationals, why are there no food poisoning cases in suburban areas,” queried Pakistani spaza shop owner, Usman Akhtar.
He added, “If you take a close look at these elite suburbs, foreign nationals own many spaza shops but there was not even a single death reported.”
Ethiopian entrepreneur, Anbassa Bekele, echoed the sentiments.
“I smell a rat in this whole campaign,” Bekele said.
“I suspect yet another form of xenophobia against foreign-owned spaza shops in townships. The truth of the matter is why are there no deaths in spaza shops in elite suburbs like Sandton, Fourways or Randburg?”
Faduma Abdullahi, Somali spaza shop owner, sympathized with those that lost their loved ones through suspected food poisoning.
“While I sympathise with families of those that died, I equally call upon local politicians to desist from rushing to pin-pointing fingers at foreign owned spaza shops located in the townships,” Abdullahi said.
He argued many foreign owned spaza shops also provide quality service in elite suburbs of many metros nationwide where not even a single death has ever been reported.
“I strongly suspect this is yet another frantic effort to soil the image of foreign owned spaza shops hence appealing to politicians to stop spreading hate speech against foreign owned spaza shops,” Abdullahi said.
However, if the intervention by authorities is anything to go by, foreign nationals are not entirely to blame.
Authorities have banned hawkers from food in and around food from school premises.
These hawkers are mostly South African women and are angered by the ban.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), one of the main parties in the coalition government, blames the deaths on the severe shortage of Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) to inspect food sold by vendors and spaza shop owners, coupled with the Department of Health’s inadequate oversight of food safety standards.
Dr Karl le Roux, DA Deputy Spokesperson on Health, said the crisis was a damning indictment of governance that has allowed health and safety inspections to collapse over the years, failing the children and the public at large.
“Unless we address these underlying issues, food poisoning incidents will almost certainly become more frequent, posing a constant threat to vulnerable populations, particularly young children,” he warned.
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, health minister, recent announced that forensic tests following the deaths of six primary school children from Naledi, Soweto – who had allegedly eaten snacks from a foreign-owned local spaza shop – showed they were killed by a highly toxic organophosphate called Terbufos.
“We appeal to the public not to take the law into their own hands but to rather notify relevant authorities where they pick up noncompliance issues,” Motsoaledi advised.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that asylum seekers and refugees with valid permits have the legal right to operate businesses, including spaza shops.
There is rising sentiment against foreign nationals in Africa’s largest economy, which nonetheless is failing to provide formal jobs to millions, mainly youth.
Some politicians are accused of mobilising youth via the sentiment that foreigners are “taking their jobs” while some claim foreigners “commit crime.”
– CAJ News