Gauteng Economic Development and Finance MEC Lebogang Maile Maile said that President Cyril Ramaphosa might have to declare the food poisoning incident involving spaza shops a state of emergency. He said that the government needs to take drastic measures, not just words or reactions after the different incidents

THEY NEED TO DO BETTER

Maile was speaking in Alexandra today outside the spaza shop where 11-year-old Lesedi Maaboi allegedly bought snacks that she ate and died. Her mother and younger brother were admitted to the hospital after they were said to have consumed the same snacks. Maile said inspectors are not doing enough on food contamination incidents and deaths linked to spaza shops. "We want to implore law enforcement that has been instructed to do inspections to make it a thorough but quick process. They need to cover as many areas as possible. I don't think that they are doing enough, we need to put more pressure on them. We had spoken with the speaker and councillors that they will have to take keen responsibility and interest and track the progress of the inspections. We also need consistency for all municipalities," he said. Maile added that they need to know how many places have been inspected. What their findings are and what actions are being taken. "I think this should be included in the SAPS's Operation Shanela, which is conducted weekly in our province.'

CALM RESTORED

Alexandra CPF chairperson Sarah Mohale said chaos had been subsidised by the end of Sunday night. "Last night it was calm, we didn't hear a lot of incidents. The shop is still closed and all the stock was confiscated and taken to the police station. We're going to support that family throughout. For now we don't have details of the funeral but what we can say is that the deceased'd mother and brother are out of the intensive care unit - may the grace of God be with them."