The community of Naledi, a section of South Africa’s biggest township, Soweto, is reeling in the wake of the deaths of five children who perished after allegedly consuming snacks bought at a spaza shop, a type of informal shop found in townships and villages.
Such establishments are now the domain of foreign nationals, often from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Horn of Africa, mainly Somalis and Ethiopians.
It is a vibrant sector that has sadly annihilated the traditional township or village general dealer, which is unheard of nowadays.
The tragic death of the children in Naledi this week has brought to the fore the utter shambles around the regulation of this type of trade, or more accurately, the lack of law enforcement.
Simply put, there is a lack of political will to tackle a problem that has been with us for years now.
It is a state of affairs for which the blame should be laid squarely at the door of the government, whether local, provincial or national.
For each of those cannot walk away blameless while we have such chaos.
The deaths of the five children were not the first, and predictably won’t be the last while the people at the receiving end of such incompetence are made to listen to speeches from the very people who failed them.
No doubt politicians and officials will have no shame in making promises of “leaving no stone unturned” to get to the bottom of the cause of the children’s deaths.
The speeches will be made as the families mourn the losses, and once the dust settles after the deceased are put to rest, it will be business as usual, until the next tragedy of similar proportions and in similar circumstances occurs.
There is also an issue to be made of our communities’ superficial anger at what is going on.
Instead of exerting pressure where it should be directed, people would rather raid and loot the spaza shops soon after these kinds of tragedies.
The irony is lost on them that they were looting the self-same food that is alleged to have killed children in their communities, thereby putting their own lives in danger were they to eat the stuff as well.
Opportunists such as Operation Dudula, have outdone themselves by carrying out thinly veiled xenophobic attacks on the shopkeepers, including the looting and shutdown of shops.
It’s the inefficiency of the government that has created the space for such characters to operate.
The questions to be asked of municipalities are: Where are its authorities that are meant to ensure health and food safety standards are adhered to? Where is the mayor when the lives of innocent children in his city are endangered like that?
The man seems to have gone into hibernation since he announced his arrival on the scene by suggesting that the Johannesburg Metro Police Department hire foreign nationals to help out with combating illegal immigration.
The man who is carrying the can and led the response to the Naledi tragedy was the Gauteng finance and economic development MEC Lebogang Maile.
We can only hope that concrete steps will be taken going forward to rid not only Soweto and the surrounds of this problem. It is a national problem as well.
