Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced the arrest of four suspects linked to the recent food poisoning incidents.
The incidents have claimed lives and caused numerous hospitalizations in Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi Reveals Arrest Of Four Suspects Following Food Poisoning Incidents
Speaking at a media briefing, Motsoaledi declared the food poisoning cases a national security threat, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
“They did confess that there is an illegal chemical, which they buy from their mall, 27 officials visited that mall and they confiscated 1456 gram of that chemical. Four people were arrested, one man and three women, two of them in terms of the laws of the country where given bail of R2000. The others are still in custody. The confiscated chemical is in Johannesburg Central prison.”
This discovery comes as authorities intensify their efforts to uncover the root causes of these incidents. The minister assured the public of a thorough investigation, highlighting the presence of harmful substances in food distributed through the school feeding scheme as a primary concern.
The crisis escalated earlier this month when six children in Soweto died after consuming suspected tainted treats from a local spaza shop. The tragic deaths have heightened community concerns, with foreign-owned spaza shops in townships being accused of selling unsafe and expired food products.
Government’s Response
In response to the surge in food poisoning cases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has been called upon to investigate. Health inspectors have conducted assessments of 84 spaza shops in Soweto, where they discovered an undisclosed chemical. Officials seized over 1,456 grams (about 1.5 kg) of the substance during their inspections.
Minister Motsoaledi assured the public that the Government will leave no stone unturned:
“I know that we are under pressure that we are doing nothing while people are dying, but we can’t just rush and make conclusions. “So we have a team on the ground doing investigations, forensic pathologists are there, epidemiologists are there, and some clinicians who specialise in symptoms of somebody who has been chemically poisoned.
“They have these swaps of children that have been taken, and the files of these children, they are scrutinising all those things and the postmortem results to try and make out exactly what we are dealing with.”