The Minister of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs says a process still needs to be followed to declare the recent spike in food-borne illnessess in the country as a disaster. Velinkhosi Hlabisa announced that the matter has so far been classified, but not yet declared

Hlabisa was one among several ministers playing a role in the national government’s response to instances of food borne illnesses. The ministers gathered for a briefing on Thursday.

It follows the recent death of a five-year-old boy from Diepkloof. He is suspected to have died from food poisoning. He was allegedly vomiting and had a runny stomach, after eating snacks from a local shop. According to police, the exact cause of death is unknown at this stage, as authorities await the autopsy results.

The Gauteng Education Department deployed its Education Support Team to provide emotional and psychological support to learners and staff. Department spokesperson, Steven Mabona, says three other learners have also been hospitalised after receiving similar symptoms.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube says her department has a huge role to play in combatting these ongoing issue, as it mainly affects children of school-going age. Gwarube says the department has conducted inspections at various school nutrition programmes and has found that most of the food-borne illness cases do not emanate from school programmes but rather from snacks being taken to school.

The authorities are still investigating all the cases, suspected to be linked to the unauthorised use of the agricultural pesticide, Terbufos. Hlabisa says all agencies and Departments are working together to get to the bottom of this.

While monitoring the snacks brought onto school grounds would be difficult to police, Gwarube says one intervention would be to ban pesticides from school premises.

Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen says there are only 6 licences for the use of Terbufos (of which 5 are active). Evidence of the chemical was recently found in three of 84 spaza shops in Soweto. Samples were taken from these shops, following the deaths of six children in Naledi last month. Terbufos was identified as the children’s cause of death.

READ MORE: Motsoaledi: Naledi children died of pesticide poisoning

While those three spaza shops were closed down, authorities says they cannot directly link them to the death of six children in Naledi.

Similarly, the Police Ministry says it has yet to make arrests for deaths with supposed links to foodborne illnesses. National Police Commissioner, Fannie Masemola, says this is because investigations are still in the inquest stage, with no link to any suspects yet. Masemola says that once all the facts surrounding the incident have been gathered, police can take the next step.

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