The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality is determined to close all spaza shops and food outlets that do not comply to the health and safety regulations under food law.
On Friday Buffalo City Metro continued with its operation of closing noncompliance spaza shops and food outlets in Ward 15 Nompumelelo township, East London.
The raid was conducted by the Department of Health Service together with the Department of Home Affairs and the South African Police Services. The focus of this raid was on food premises which included spaza shops and Chisa nyamas.
Business owners who did not comply to the healthy and safety regulations were given warning notices, fines others were arrested and some shops were closed.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya emphasized that as the city they will not rest until all spaza shops comply with regulations and put people’s lives first. The department of health has indicated that the carelessness of these businesses owners leads to uncessary illnesses.
Ngwenya said, “By now, people running food outlets should know that there is no place for running scrupulous unhygienic business in Buffalo City. We are not going to compromise in ensuring that everything is done above the law.”
“Some of the discoveries that we are finding in these shops are telling that we must intensify our operations. Our people are at risk they are exposed to food outlets that careless and reckless. Part of this process is to raise awareness to the community as well to be aware and safeguard against complaince matters,” he added.
