Inside Africa: Tragic Negligence Claims Children’s Lives in South Africa
Darren Stewart
On Sunday the 6th of October, six friends around the ages of 8 years old went to a local food store in Naledi, a neighbourhood of Soweto, Johannesburg’s southwestern township. They went to a spaza shop (a local bodega) and bought ‘brown dash’, popular chips packaged by the store itself and likely drawn from the oil on the same day. After leaving the shop, a few minutes of digestion pass by. They would have experienced nausea and vomiting within the next moments. Their pupils would have become constricted, as would their breathing. Within four hours, five of the children tragically died. Their names were, Ida Maama, Isago Mabote, Monica Sathekge, Karabo Rampou and Njabulo Msimanga. The sixth child, Katlego Oliphant, died a week later after fighting for his life in intensive care. He was just seven years old.
Forensic analysis revealed that the deaths occurred from a pesticide known as terbufos, a highly toxic organophosphate normally used for agricultural pest control. The World Health Organization classifies the chemical as a class 1A compound (most toxic), and it is illegal for street sale in most countries of the world, including South Africa. Yet, the pesticide is legally registered for agricultural uses, making it accessible across the country. For lack of better alternatives, or knowledge, it is believed that many street vendors sell and use Terbufos and other toxic insecticides such as carbamates for urban pest control.
This includes keeping rodents away inside spaza shops. Since the sale of these pesticides for street purposes is illegal, many shops will also decant and package the chemicals themselves, just as they package the popular chips. Handling these items without appropriate precautions can cause cross contamination. A report by The Citizen claims an unnamed source revealed that spaza shops buy both chips and pesticides (such as aldicarb) in bulk. These are both packaged for sale inside the shops.
This explains why, on a tragic Sunday afternoon, as 8-year-old Isago came home from playing with friends because he ‘felt dizzy’, his grandmother found him convulsing, “rolling his eyes”, and vomiting. As a vehicle drove off from their house to the nearby hospital, Karabo, Isago’s friend who lived three houses away, was being carried by his mother who wailed to take her child with them, limp in her arms. 40 minutes later, both boys were declared deceased at the Bheki Mlangeni Hospital.
According to Dr. Gerhard Verdoorn, most clinics wouldn’t have atropine sulphate, an antidote to these kinds of attacks which can stabilise the central nervous system if administered quickly enough. “Doctors and nurses do their best with what they have, but in many cases it is too late for the patients.” At the funeral of the children, Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng Premier, promised an investigation into the deaths.
In the Guateng province, where both Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria are located, there have been 441 cases linked to spaza shops since the start of 2024, and 23 deaths, most of them children. Inspections following the deaths of the six Naledi children confirmed that three shops in the area had traces of Terbufos in them. Ennie Makhafola, a member of the Johannesburg mayoral committee for health and social development, claimed however that the spaza shop where the children had bought the chips had complied with all the regulations in an inspection in August.
Spaza shops are non-registered, informal microenterprises. They don’t pay tax and aren’t regulated enough to comply with food-safety guidelines. To know whether a shop follows health and safety procedures when handling and selling food is mirky territory. To rely on them is mirkier still.
Historically however, spaza shops have cultural significance. The word ‘spaza’ means ‘hidden’ in isiZulu, the language of the Zulu people widely spoken across South Africa. They are ‘hidden’ because during the Apartheid era, black South African’s were restricted from running businesses. Spaza shops were how one could easily access daily necessities in black neighbourhoods during the racially segregated South African period.
While spaza shops were considered illegal until 1989, they expanded across urban areas and formed an integral part of local urban economies and access to food. When it was legalised as a trading purpose, trading licences were enforced, but the shops continue to be an economic opportunity for many poor people, and therefore retain their informal status. A 2023 study by Accenture estimates that 30% - 40% of annual food expenditure comes from the informal sector. Much of this food is sold in spaza shops.
The problem lies therein: spaza shops experience difficulties in supply chains, product shortages and many have a poor maintenance of food shelf-life. The quality of the food is not always reliable, and there are no measures or restrictions in place which could ameliorate this. Since spaza shops don’t operate within the South African Revenue Service (SARS), incidents of foodborne illness are common, sadly, especially in children.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech on November 15th that: “After stringent testing, a chip packet found on one of the children who had died had traces of Terbufos on both the inside and the outside of the packet.” The department of agriculture will now review the legislation on regulations and authorisation of pesticides. Additionally, Ramaphosa announced a mandatory re-registration of all spaza shops within 21 days. All shops linked to deaths will be closed immediately, and shops that fail to register within 21 days and do not meet health standards will be closed thereafter.
A special Cabinet meeting concluded that stricter regulations on hazardous pesticides will be enforced, and businesses and shops not complying will be shut down. Schools will also be given protocols to prevent and manage foodborne illnesses, and a public education programme is planned to educate on food safety and the identification, handling and storage of hazardous chemicals. Additionally, rat infestations will be tackled by cleaning towns and waste removal.
Yet, it is unclear whether this will do any good. Like many African economies, informal micro-enterprises form an integral part of people’s livelihoods and the circulation of currency. This is an economic system which arose from a lack of appropriate infrastructure and support for businesses to operate. It is usually associated with corruption.
Spaza shops are killing children across South Africa. Yet if the government does not establish an economic system where the formal sector becomes accessible to its citizens, informal businesses such as Spaza shops will continue to operate. Access to food will continue to be unreliable for many. Illegal and toxic substances will also continue to be used inappropriately. For children especially, this poses an increased threat to their lives. For six friends from Naledi, it costed them theirs.
