The deaths of 22 children and the falling ill of others from suspected food poisoning are the result of systemic governmental failures owing to devastating state dysfunction at all levels, from national departments of health, the environment, education and the police to entities at provincial and municipal levels.
The toxic mix of corruption, incompetence and ignorance of elected officials and public servants, combined with their lack of accountability, has led to the chronic collapse of many government departments, agencies and oversight institutions, which inevitably leads to a total governmental system failure once a tipping point is reached — which it now has in South Africa.
Dysfunctional government is deadly. Administrative failures have resulted in rising infrastructural decay, from bridges collapsing and fires breaking out in neglected buildings to power outages, water cuts and contamination, and gas pipeline explosions.
Rodents have infested many human settlements, and pesticides have been widely used by citizens to tackle them, given that the government is not providing essential waste-removal services
South Africa has seen little law enforcement in recent years, and that extends to health and safety, including food and hygiene, regulations and bylaws. Legislative provisions have in many cases not been enforced because of corruption, while in other instances entire departments have been captured. Furthermore, incompetent civil servants and elected officials often do not understand the laws they are meant to be administering — and therefore cannot implement them even when they are honest.
Incompetent, ignorant and neglectful elected officials and public servants do not grasp how the dereliction of their duties negatively affects the lives of citizens, communities and businesses, as well as the functioning of the state. Government system failures began with the ruling party deploying politically connected individuals without appropriate skills to crucial positions at all levels of the public service, state-owned enterprises and oversight bodies.
The social distance between often generously paid public sector officials and ordinary citizens is so vast that the former are blind to the negative impact of their woeful performance of their duties on the lives of ordinary citizens, the functioning of private sector businesses, and the wellbeing of communities.
Some of the recent poisonings have been attributed to pesticides used to control rodents. Local government failures to keep cities, townships and villages clean have led to the build-up of dirt and waste. In these filthy conditions, rodents have infested many human settlements, and pesticides have been widely used by citizens to tackle them, given that the government is not providing essential waste-removal services.
The government has failed to ensure that health, sanitation, waste and environmental regulations are implemented. The enforcement of these laws has in some places totally broken down. This is either because public servants, regulators and inspectors are incompetent, or because they are venal and unaccountable.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said he will ensure companies manufacturing pesticides such as Terbufos are scrutinised to “ensure no products are diverted into the non-agricultural market”. He has further vowed that “the supply chain process for the distribution and sale of Terbufos will be investigated to ensure controls are being adhered to and there is accountability for those they sell to”.
However, Ramaphosa’s response is merely a sticking plaster. Regulation 638 made under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, which sets out hygiene standards for food premises and transporting food, has been poorly implemented. Health inspectors are virtually non-existent in both the formal and the informal economy.
In 2017 and 2018, South Africa saw a serious outbreak of listeriosis at Tiger Brands subsidiary Enterprise Foods’ meat-processing facility in Polokwane. A class-action lawsuit has been brought against Tiger Brands on behalf of more than 1,000 people who contracted the foodborne illness. While Tiger Brands is in the dock for its alleged negligence, the government should also be on trial for not enforcing health, sanitation and environmental standards.
Consumers in South Africa are also not properly protected, in both the formal and the informal sectors. Under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), every consumer has the right to safe and high-quality goods that comply with the relevant health regulations. In addition, under the CPA misleading product labels are unlawful.
However, this week police reported they had found expired imported food at a Durban warehouse. This is plainly not an isolated incident and again shows a governmental failure — this time at customs — owing to incompetence, corruption or neglect.
In 2014, an investigation by the National Consumer Commission (NCC) found widespread unlawful practices in labelling food carried out by both formal retailers and informal spaza shops. The NCC concluded that, because of the misleading labels, many customers may have experienced diarrhoea and vomiting — and in severe cases even died.
In the 2014 investigation, NCC inspectors reported they had found food labels with information on them whited out or torn off. Furthermore, ingredient lists were missing from many product stickers, and makeshift labels containing new and false expiry dates had been placed over original ones.
The breakdown in the rule of law — which includes the failure to enforce rules and regulations — has given retailers in both the formal and informal sectors licence to abuse consumers. Corruption, incompetence, ignorance, indifference and a general lack of accountability by public officials have created a culture in which consumer abuse proliferates. This state of affairs has led to a toxic environment in which the tragic deaths by poisoning of children can happen. The parents of the children, civil society and public interest lawyers should take the government to court for its multiple state failures.
• William Gumede is an associate professor in the School of Governance at Wits University and the author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg).
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.