Department of Health slams hoax message
A hoax message is being circulated on social media warning people against contaminated bananas being sold in South Africa.
A BOGUS message is doing the rounds on social media warning the public against buying or eating bananas from supermarkets in Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria, said the National Department of Health in an official statement released on Wednesday.
The warning, supposedly issued by the Ministry of Health, claims that there are contaminated bananas being sold. It is ‘untrue, malicious, and diabolic’ said the department. “It is designed to cause unnecessary panic to the public.”
“We want to state clearly that there was never such warning posted on our website. There are procedures in place to ensure that information placed on our website is accurate and verified by authorised officials of the Department. Matters of such public health magnitude are not dealt with simply by releasing a press statement. The Ministry of Health would have convened a media conference to thoroughly inform the public about the risk,” the statement read.
The source of the ‘misleading information’ had reportedly been traced and the department urged the public to ignore the hoax.
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