The City of Tshwane yesterday embarked on a food safety operation in Pretoria North, where they raided some businesses and spaza shops to check if they complied with the law.
Health MMC Rina Marx led officials from the municipal health services and the Tshwane metro police officers issued fines for business operators caught on the wrong side of municipal by-laws.
They also inspected whether there were goods that had passed their sell-by dates during the operation.
The metro police officers destroyed a dagga tree planted inside one of the properties where people lived in shacks built with boxes and wooden materials. The whereabouts of the property owner was not known.
A spaza shop operator at Bakenkloof street in the area was fined an amount of R2 500 for operating without a fire extinguisher and a dustbin.
Officials found that the first shop visited was generally compliant with the law except that it failed to do deep cleaning on Saturday.
Marx expressed satisfaction with the crime-fighting operation, saying it was one of many efforts made by the municipality to ensure that businesses adhere to by-laws.
“We really had a good success rate in terms of this operation. This is not the only operation. We are doing similar operations all over the city. We will increase and intensify the operations so that the residents know that we are the city to care for them,”she said.
Regarding a property where dagga was found, she said: “We are also trying to clean up the site. We are doing a clean-up operation but we can not remove the shacks because we have to place them somewhere before we can remove them.”
One of the targeted spaza shops was found closed after the owner seemingly received a tip-off from other business operators.
Marx said: “These store owners do connect with each other and they do let each other know that there is an operation going on. What we will do is that we will go there unannounced again.”
The operation was conducted in the wake of complaints by the Ga-Rankuwa community that some spaza shops were illegally operating in the township.
Recently, the community started a campaign calling for authorities to deport their owners and shut down illegal spaza shops.
The campaign was sparked by a recent incident involving at least 22 learners from Tlotlo-Mpho Primary School in Ga-Rankuwa, who took ill after consuming snacks believed to have been supplied by a foreign national.
The City, on the other hand, encouraged community involvement in the fight against the sale of unsafe food products by spaza shops or wholesalers.
Public members were advised to report any illegal activities related to the manufacturing, preparation, repackaging or selling of any food products.
The public can report such cases to the municipal health services section reachable on: 012 358 4656 / 8609 / 3146 / 8611 / 3218.
Pretoria News