Nearly two years after food poisoning incidents claimed the lives of children across South Africa, Gauteng’s food safety system has been found to be fundamentally compromised by systemic governance failures, corruption and weak enforcement, leaving communities vulnerable to contaminated food.
The findings, released on Friday by Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, stem from a systemic investigation launched after the 2024 food poisoning crisis, in which at least 23 children died nationally, including six children from Naledi, Soweto, who consumed snacks contaminated with the highly toxic pesticide Terbufos bought from a local spaza shop.
The deaths sparked nationwide outrage, triggered a government crackdown on informal food businesses and led to the compulsory registration of spaza shops and other interventions aimed at tightening food safety oversight.
Despite those measures, Gcaleka found that Gauteng still lacks the capacity to effectively enforce food safety laws.
“There are grounds to conclude that the Gauteng Province currently lacks the proper capacity to enforce food safety practices by informal food retailers, including spaza shops, vendors, hawkers and school feeding schemes,” the report states.
The investigation found that the province’s regulatory system has failed to protect consumers because of fragmented governance, weak enforcement, outdated legislation, corruption, chronic staff shortages and poor coordination between government departments.
“Gauteng Province is replete with unsafe food handling practices, remains open to risk of food poisoning and contamination,” Gcaleka found.
She warned that unless those failures are addressed, Gauteng communities will remain vulnerable to future food poisoning outbreaks.
“These governance gaps open an opportunity for the mushrooming of unregistered informal traders who remain non-compliant with required food hygiene and safety standards, thus exposing the community of Gauteng to a perpetually heightened risk of unabated outbreaks of food poisoning incidents.”
Among the report’s most alarming findings is the scale of non-compliance across Gauteng’s informal food sector.
Only 5% of spaza shops in Ekurhuleni are licensed, compared with 14% in Johannesburg and 30% in Tshwane. Across the remaining Gauteng districts, compliance averages just 28%.
“For each licensed or permitted spaza shop in the province, there are almost three unlicensed spaza shops that are operational,” Gcaleka found.
Inspectors also uncovered widespread food safety violations, including expired and spoiled food, repackaged and unlabelled products, rodent infestations, poor hygiene, food stored on floors and against walls, and repeated failures by businesses to comply even after statutory notices had been issued.
The report further identifies corruption and business fronting as major contributors to the crisis.
“The evidence before me reveals identified and verified specific instances of business fronting by foreign nationals,” the report states.
It further found that some South African citizens were allegedly assisting foreign nationals to operate businesses unlawfully.
“Some local citizens may be aiding and abetting foreigners to operate spaza shops in contravention of the Immigration Act, thus participating in corrupt and unlawful activities.”
The report also identified “verified possible cases of corruption, fraud and false declaration involving local citizens aiding and abetting illegal migrants”.
The findings come as immigration and informal trading have become increasingly contentious issues across Gauteng, with communities demanding stricter enforcement of food safety laws and taking action against foreign-owned spaza shops they believe are operating unlawfully or selling expired or unsafe food. Against this backdrop, the investigation found that foreign nationals accounted for the majority of applications received during government’s nationwide spaza shop registration drive, while emphasising that weak regulation, poor enforcement and systemic governance failures had allowed widespread non-compliance to persist.
According to the report, 67% of applications in Ekurhuleni came from foreign nationals, while Johannesburg recorded 64% and Tshwane 41%. Overall, approximately 56% of the registered spaza shops accounted for in the report are operated by foreign nationals.
However, Gcaleka concluded that the fundamental problem lies not in ownership, but in government’s failure to effectively regulate the sector.
“These serious systemic operational deficiencies as well as fragmented governance structures increase non-compliance with applicable regulatory framework and further create an opportunity for exploitation by unscrupulous corrupt informal traders and criminal networks.”
The report also found severe shortages of Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs), saying municipalities simply do not have enough inspectors to effectively monitor food businesses.
Johannesburg has only 240 Environmental Health Practitioners serving a population of about 4.8 million people, placing the metro at roughly 50% of the recommended staffing level. Ekurhuleni is operating at only about 23% compliance, while Tshwane also falls well below the recommended ratio of one practitioner for every 10 000 residents.
The Public Protector concluded that these staffing shortages have significantly weakened municipalities’ ability to inspect food premises, investigate complaints and enforce food safety legislation. The investigation also extended beyond informal traders to Gauteng schools participating in the National School Nutrition Programme.
It found that 611 schools lacked adequate kitchen infrastructure, while only 262 schools had valid Certificates of Acceptability. A further 1,413 schools were operating without the mandatory certificates.
“These limitations heighten the risk of food contamination and are in direct contravention of applicable food handling regulations,” the report states.
Among her remedial actions, Gcaleka directed Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to coordinate a province-wide response to address the systemic failures identified in the report.
The recommendations include strengthening coordination between provincial departments and municipalities, increasing the number of Environmental Health Practitioners and inspectors, improving enforcement of food safety legislation, tightening oversight of licensing and registration systems, strengthening the regulation of hazardous pesticides and submitting progress reports on the implementation of corrective measures.
Responding to the findings, Gauteng government spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the provincial government accepted the report and would implement the Public Protector’s recommendations.
“We welcome the report from the Public Protector. The report is very useful as all the implicated organs of state are now compelled to work together to remedy the situation; it is no longer optional.
“We will therefore cooperate fully with all relevant role players to address the issues raised.
“The Public Protector is very clear regarding the next steps that the Premier must take, we will act accordingly.”
The African Transformation Movement (ATM), whose parliamentary complaint in October 2024 prompted the investigation, said the findings confirmed long-standing concerns about government’s failure to enforce existing laws.
ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said the report exposed “a South African state that has steadily lost control over the enforcement of its own laws”.
“The tragedy occurred because government stopped enforcing those laws,” he said.
“The Public Protector’s investigation confirms that regulatory failures across municipalities, provincial government and national departments have allowed a dangerous environment to flourish where illegal operators, criminal syndicates and non-compliant businesses are able to exploit systemic weaknesses while ordinary South Africans pay with their health and, in some cases, with their lives.”
The report comes amid renewed community concerns over food safety, with residents in several Gauteng communities taking matters into their own hands by shutting down spaza shops they believe are operating unlawfully or selling unsafe food.
Communities in areas including Cosmo City and parts of Soweto among many others have staged protests in recent weeks, arguing that government has failed to adequately enforce food safety standards despite repeated assurances following the 2024 tragedy.
One Cosmo City resident said the community could no longer afford to wait for government intervention.
“We can’t sit as a community and do nothing about these shops. If we’ve reached this point, then we must stand up and close them. Imagine my five-year-old swallowing that pill thinking it’s a sweet. The community must be vigilant,” the resident said.
Several residents said their efforts to raise concerns have yielded little change, with some shops continuing to operate despite repeated complaints from the community.
Saturday Star