Food safety blitz: ‘We’re going for the big guys now’ – Maile says amid spaza shop raids

Gauteng’s Finance and Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile says the government will also target bigger food outlets for compliance, and not just spaza shops.

Maile was in Moroka, Soweto, leading a food safety blitz targeting various spaza shops and food outlets on Monday.

The aim of the blitz is to ensure that the food outlets adhere to health standards, comply with the regulations and do not sell contaminated food.

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There are about 166 spaza shops in Moroka and no incidents of food poisoning have been reported.

Rat droppings found

However, during the inspections, Maile said rat droppings were found in one of the bigger food outlets in the area, while some food items did not have marked expiry dates.

“Inspectors will do a follow-up on the store and ensure they’re compliant. You cannot close down a shop with 1000 products just because one or two of their products were bad. We remove the products, give them a warning and come back to see if they’re complying,” Maile told the media on Monday.

“They don’t qualify for the closure, but they have weaknesses, and they promised to take care of them.”

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There were also some food items produced by new and local manufacturers which were not compliant. Some of their products did not have marked expiry dates, said the MEC.

However, Maile said instead of shutting down the local manufacturers, the government would assist them with resources to ensure they’re compliant. 

Although the focus has been on spaza shops following a number of cases where children died, while others were hospitalised after consuming food items from the shops, Maile said even bigger food outlets were culprits.

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The provincial government will also focus on the bigger food outlets to ensure compliance. 

“We’re going for the big guys now. The focus has been on spaza shops only, but some of the bigger guys are also not compliant. It is selfish and greedy for business people to do business without care for the people they’re catering to. We have to make sure that things work in this country,” said Maile.

Spaza shop registration

On 15 November, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that all spaza shops must be registered with their respective municipalities within 21 days.

The deadline has now been postponed to 28 February 2025, following requests by spaza shop owners, who said the deadline was too close.

ALSO READ: 51 788 spaza shops have applied for registration since Ramaphosa’s announcement – Mbalula

The Departments of Small Business Development and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition are going to launch a fund to support South African-owned shops.

The two departments have set aside about R500 million for the fund.