Khayelitsha residents have demanded the closure of spaza shops in their community after discovering ou kos dumped on a busy road on Tuesday morning.
Children were seen picking up pakkies lekkers on their way to school in Town Two.
The groceries were dumped in front of a solid waste shipping container.
When cleaners arrived they found a mountain of sakkies containing packets of mealie meal, sweets, noodles and biscuits. Some of the food had expired in 2021 and 2022 already.
Reacting to this, local councillors Mthwalo Mkhutswana and Thando Pimpi called the cops and asked officers to accompany them to shut down spaza shops in the area.
Mkhutswana said: “We got information that there was a bakkie that arrived and dumped the stuff.
“We suspect that after the president spoke Friday, Somalis decided to dump their expired food.”
Pimpi added: “We want the police to shut down the shops and also determine the validity of the citizenship of the people who work there and also check the expiration dates of their food.
“The law enforcement must work with us. We don’t want to take the law into our own hands.”
However, the cops said they would return with more manpower as well as City officials.
According to residents, they recently buried a child who picked up chips from an illegal dump site and ate it.
Community leader Mbulelo Dwane said an honest conversation is needed about spaza shop owners.
“If they behave like this, selling us expired food items, endangering us and children, we have to ask ourselves difficult questions such as, should these people be with us in our communities? Are they helping or killing our communities?”
Last week, authorities clamped down on a foreigner-owned butchery in Mfuleni producing sausage in a vuil factory.
On Monday, nine children from Mossel Bay had to be hospitalised after consuming chips bought at a local spaza.
The kids complained of stomach cramps.
On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation following the death of 23 children and more than 500 reported incidents of food-borne illnesses across the country.
Ramaphosa outlined a series of measures aimed at enhancing public health and safety, among these that all spaza shops and food-handling facilities must register with their local municipalities within 21 days or face closure and possible criminal prosecution.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za