Operation Dudula has called for all foreign owned spaza shops to close Photo Health for Mzansi
South Africa – Six children have tragically lost their lives, and many more have fallen seriously ill, after reportedly consuming snacks purchased from local spaza shops. The devastating incidents occurred over the past month, with one pupil from Onkgopotse Tiro Primary School in Tshepisong, Roodepoort, succumbing to alleged food poisoning at a nearby clinic. In separate incidents, four children lost their lives in Gauteng within days of each other, while two more tragically died in the Free State, all after consuming food bought at spaza shops.
Last week Friday, the Gauteng Department of Education confirmed police were already looking into the circumstances around the death of the grade three learner from Onkgopotse Tiro Primary School. Spaza shops, vital for township economies, have become a cause for concern. These shops, which according to Zandile Dudula, President of Operation Dudula, are largely managed by foreign nationals, have raised alarms due to their sale of expired and counterfeit goods.
“It’s very sad that we have to lose lives at the hands of foreign nationals. After 3 years Operation Dudula has been on the ground trying to alert the government that there’s something wrong within our communities. We are having a lot of spaza shops, the township economies, in the hands of foreign nationals but now we have also learned that there are also drug issues that are involved in those spaza shops. In 2021 when Operation Dudula started, the very first operation that we did was raiding these spaza shops. At that time we did not really know that the goods were counterfeit but we knew that they were expired goods and the place where they were selling goods was not a place where people could consume food.”
Operation Dudula asserts the deaths and illnesses are a direct consequence of consuming goods from these spaza shops. A lack of coverage from the mainstream media and the government have led to frustration and anger among the affected communities.
Operation Dudula’s response
Faced with governmental inaction, Operation Dudula has decided to intensify its efforts. Dudula emphasised the need for communities to unite and take matters into their own hands. The organisation plans to mobilise the local community in order to shut down spaza shops they believe are dangerous.
“We are going to intensify the closure of the spaza shops. We have an online TikTok presentation to give a directive to the public on how it should be done because we have said that communities need to organise themselves because Operation Dudula cannot go everywhere. The communities need to organise themselves and make sure that these spaza shops close and these people go out of our community.”
SMread: Difficult decisions: Gaza health system on brink of collapse
Are foreign-owned spaza shops the real problem
The spotlight has fallen heavily on foreign-owned spaza shops, with Dudula pointing fingers at them for the prevalence of expired products. However, Dr Vusi Sibanda, chairperson at African Diaspora Forum, emphasised that the sale of expired products is not limited to spaza shops run by foreign nationals.
“We’ve had this going on for a while now. We had such battles in 2019. I remember that at one particular moment in the Fordsburg area when the inspectors were going into the shops and they ended up picking lots of water bottles that were expired. That did not happen in a shop that was owned by a foreign national. The problem of products that have passed their use by date that are found in shops are issues of law enforcement.”
Inspectors should enforce the laws of the country and ensure no products are being sold that are expired. While foreign-owned spaza shops may stock these goods, many South African shops also stock ex[ired goods, said Sibanda. Law enforcement must take a harder stance and do more stringent visits to these shops regardless of whether they are owned by South Africans or foreign nationals.
Xenophobia and division
The most alarming consequence of this crisis is the fear of xenophobic attacks. Driven by misinformation and the blame game, there is a risk of tension escalating between migrants and South Africans. Incidents involving foreigners tend to be amplified, overshadowing the core issue of crime and public safety. It is essential, Sibanda urged, to focus on addressing the criminal aspects of the problem rather than letting it fuel divisive sentiments.
“The people that are responsible for this must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law whether they be foreigners or locals … because of groups like Operation Dudula and so forth, even if there were people that are South Africans that are also doing these things they always amplify when it is done by migrants rather than dealing with the crime aspect of it. They want to blend it as a migrant trend which therefore tends to sour relations between migrants and native South Africans. Which is very very unfortunate because we always say that crime should be dealt with irrespective of who committed it.”
In response to these, Sibanda urged the migrant community to take proactive measures. Compliance with regulations, active involvement of law enforcement agencies, and peaceful resolution of conflicts are vital steps forward.
“We are also asking them to try and avoid being confrontational and if they see that there’s a situation that is brewing to involve the law enforcement agents to help pacify the situation and make sure that the police actually do you handle that because we don’t want the situation where spaza shops, in a bid to defend their shops from being looted, end up in a situation where they fight.”
Police Minister Bheki Cele has called for police and other relevant government departments to strengthen their oversight inspections, especially when it comes to street vendors and spaza shops.
