Rancid meat, spoiled cheese, beauty items and baby products were among a hoard of allegedly expired goods the Hawks found on an Mpumalanga farm on Wednesday.
The discovery led to the arrest of farmer Pieter Johannes Grobler, 30, who appeared in the Secunda magistrate’s court the next day, charged with contravening “regulations governing general hygiene requirements for food premises, the transport of food and other related matters”.
Police said Grobler bought expired items from retailers, repackaged it on his property and resold it to the local community.
While it is unclear who his biggest customers were, a local source told the Sunday Times that Grobler’s farm workers bought food from him.
“They could buy on credit and then the money was taken off their pay,” the source said.
A high-ranking Hawks source confirmed the claim. “A credit book where the farm workers’ debt is entered every month was also confiscated during Wednesday’s raid,” the officer said.
Grobler was granted bail of R8,000 on Thursday. An hour later — near a small town called Charl Cilliers, about 25km outside Secunda — a convoy of seven vehicles, several marked as police or Hawks vehicles, sped down a muddy farm road to Grobler’s farm.
At the closed main gate, Grobler was called to open up.
The pig farmer came running, though a mix up with missing keys caused a short delay.
The vehicles headed towards a humble red-bricked store, with a refrigerated truck parked beside it, behind the Grobler homestead.
Before Hawks members opened the building's red sliding doors, the stench was palpable.
Inside the entrance lay repackaged bags of flour, the original brand names visible through the plastic covering.
Baby and beauty products, tinned food and breakfast cereal were among the products found in the store.
Many were past their expiration dates, but others were not. The best-before-date stamped on one tin of pea soup was March 15, 2026.
Two walk-in fridges and a box freezer were the main focus of attention. The first walk-in was about three-quarters filled with boxes holding items ranging from spoiled cheese to toothpaste and beauty products. Another box, outside the freezer, contained rolls of plastic wrapping, allegedly used to repackage foodstuffs. Rolls of stickers labelled “sheep” and “pork” lay next to it.
Many boxes had been removed by police earlier.
Amid the rancid smell of rotten meat, a Hawks member opened a second walk-in fridge.
Various dairy products lined shelves against the walls of the fridge. A heap of rotting red meat lay on crates in the middle of the floor — the source of the stench.
The box freezer contained chicken pieces and pork, all covered in flies.
Later, outside, a frustrated Grobler began complaining to two members of the police.
“This is all really unfair. At 8am [on Wednesday], something like 20 cars came down my road to the gate. Heavily-armed officers climbed over my gates and rushed my farm as if I’m a convicted murderer. No matter what I asked or said, they refused to listen and just said they wanted that store open,” Grobler told police.
“Even now, after I have been in court, nobody has given me an opportunity to explain anything. I do not sell expired food to the public. It is an accident that some of the good food got mixed up with the pig food.
“If they look carefully, they will see the walk-in fridge on the left is filled with mostly good food. The few items that are spoiled happened by accident. The others are for the pigs.”
He blamed his employees for the rotten raw meat.
“One of my pigs broke its leg and they slaughtered it. I really don’t know why they put it there,” Grobler said.
A source told the Sunday Times a fresh search warrant had been authorised — this time to search Grobler’s house for a gun.
Grobler told the officers: “You are talking about my father’s shotgun. He is in the DRC and his shotgun is in my safe. I have a letter from him stating that it will be kept in my safe for safety reasons while he is away,” Grobler explained.
Police spokesperson Lt-Col Magonseni Nkosi said Grobler was arrested by the Hawks after “members received information from a reliable source about the health hazard activities on the farm”.
“Members activated role players from the SAPS and Govan Mbeki local municipality health inspectors. During the visit to the farm, members uncovered two warehouses, with four cold rooms that were loaded with food, including meat, chicken, and dairy products. All the recovered food was either rotten or expired,” Nkosi said.
Grobler's next court appearance is on March 27.
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