South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced strict nationwide measures to curb food-borne disease spread following numerous deaths in an address to the nation on Friday.
The government's response includes removing hazardous pesticides by closing implicated shops, mandating registration of food handling facilities within 21 days, with non-compliant businesses facing closure, and conducting nationwide inspections starting in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the most affected provinces.
"The spaza shops [tuck shops] which have been implicated in the deaths of children will be closed with immediate effect," President Cyril Ramaphosa noted, while addressing the nation.
The government will also strengthen regulations on pesticide handling and distribution and issue guidelines to schools on food-borne illness prevention, the president noted.
Investigations, triggered by six child deaths in Soweto settlement, linked the fatalities to Terbufos, a highly toxic pesticide illegally sold for household use. Tests revealed Terbufos contamination on a chip packet belonging to a deceased child, and its presence in some Soweto spaza shops, which also exhibited poor hygiene and food storage practices, Ramaphosa pointed out.