The Rustenburg Local Municipality, has noted with concern the number of expired food stuffs placed on shelves of numerous retail outlets in Rustenburg and surrounding areas. This follows an on-going operation focused on compliance which the Municipality has undertaken to ensure the safety of consumers.
Officials of the Public Safety Directorate, descended upon Lekgalong, where a number of tuck shops were found to be selling expired food stuffs such as Mokgopa Trading, Bereket Tuck Shop and Modimo Nthuse Tuck Shop. Fines were imposed on the owners of the outlets and expired food stuffs were confiscated for disposal. An additional six stores within the CBD were equally charged for selling expired food stuffs including soft drinks and baking powders.
Three stores in the Marikana Shopping Complex precinct, were also inspected and fined for contravention of Municipal by-laws as well as selling expired food stuffs. The Member of the Mayoral Committee on Public Safety, Councillor Victoria Makhaula expressed concern at the findings of the compliance operations “we have been doing this activity randomly to check if the outlets in our Municipality comply with the trading regulations. What worries me, is that we have had people dying from consuming expired food stuffs, as it happened when there was listeriosis, but it is disheartening to see business taking advantage of our people. In the last 3 weeks, we have fined over 25 stores within the CBD and in the surrounding areas and my plea is for consumers to be extra vigilant as this can compromise their health” MMC Makhaula reiterated. All of the confiscated food stuffs, have been disposed in strict compliance to the applicable environmental management prescripts.
The Municipality also remains equally concerned with the lack of fire safety equipment at the businesses which were inspected. Businesses which were found not be compliant, were also issued with fines. Compliance to Fire safety remains critical, as in the event of fires, damage to municipal infrastructure can be substantially reduced as well as reducing the risk of secondary fires in the neighbouring buildings which are most households in the townships and villages.
End.