Laudium Atgeridgeville Saulsville Civics Association (LASCA) chairperson Tshepo Mahlangu expressed joy after illegal spaza shops owned by foreigners were raided and closed down on Friday in Lotus Gardens
The raid was carried out by LASCA members, health inspectors and the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD).
This raid comes after members of the community complained about a Coca- Cola cool drink that was purchased at one of the spaza shops in the area and found to be containing a grape-like substance instead of the usual Coke cool drink this past week.
LASCA members then invited the TMPD and City of Tshwane health inspectors to the area on Friday to check upon the sale of expired food products at several illegal spaza shops in Lotus Gardens.
“Upon inspection of the spaza shops owned by foreigners in the area, TMPD and health inspectors found and destroyed expired food stuffs at four spaza shops which were also found to be operating without permits.
The four spaza shops will remain closed until the owners apply for trading licenses,” said Tshwane Metro Police spokesperson Isaac Mahamba.
Mahamba said samples of beverages from the spaza shops we taken for testing to confirm if they are from a valid supplier.
He said the chief of TMPD met with community members and assured them that the TMPD would investigate all these illegal spaza shops.
“Residents of Tshwane must know that the TMPD is taking the sale and distribution of these expired food products seriously.
Joint operations with the department of health and other role players will be conducted continuously,” he said.
LASCA president Tshepo Mahlangu said in recent months residents of Tshwane have complained about expired food products sold by foreigners at illegal spaza shops.
Mention was also made of several cases whereby some children died or got sick after consuming food products from foreign-owned spaza shops.
“The raid on foreign-owned illegal spaza shops was a success.
We managed to close down four spaza shops for non-compliance and selling expired food stuffs,” Mahlangu said.
We won’t wait until our children die before we take action against illegal spaza shops which also sell expired food stuffs.
We are not objects of experiment.
We are not guinea pigs.
We are human beings,” fumed Mahlangu.
He said more raids will take place in the capital city.
Our government doesn’t put South Africans first.
Hence it allows foreigners to operate illegal spaza shops and sell expired food stuffs to our people.
“Nevertheless, we as LASCA would like to thank TMPD director of by-laws Nkuna, Chief of TMPD Faroh as well as the City’s health inspectors for the successful raid on illegal spaza shops,” said Mahlangu.