Expired foodstuffs and other illegal items were removed from shelves in a number of shops in the Giyani Central Business District (CBD) in a raid led by the Executive Mayor of Mopani District Municipality, Nkakareng Rakgoale on Monday September 10.

Rakgoele was joined by the District Municipality’s Environmental Health Practitioners led by the Director for Community Services Dumisani Shithlangu, South African Revenue Services officials, members of the South African Police Services and other sector departments in an operation which targeted retail stores and grocery shops in the area.

According to the district municipality spokesperson, Witness Tiva, the relentless efforts by the government officials found that some shops are selling expired food to our communities. Tiva said the confiscated items will be disposed of at an undisclosed location within the district.

Read: Consumer rights to return goods under the Consumer Protection Act

“The operation follows a public outcry that was sparked by a video of expired groceries making rounds on social media platforms. There is now a national directive that Environmental Health Practitioners must embark on inspection blitzes within their respective municipalities,” said Tiva.

The Executive Mayor Rakgoale, said that the operation is targeting all shops in the towns and villages across the district municipality, irrespective of who the owners are.

“We are here to check what is happening as we are accompanied by our health practitioners we want to check as to what kind of food is being sold to our people, as you can see some of the meat we have found here is rotten and it can’t be, we are not fighting with them but we just want our communities to get value for money as they buy products from these shops,” said Rakagoale.

Those who were found to be selling expired foodstuffs were issued with notice to comply, or risk having their trading licenses revoked.