Food safety crisis looms

With South Africa facing a looming food safety crisis – with increasing incidents of food poisoning – the government continues to “ignore” that there are not enough environmental health inspectors, unemployed practitioners say.

This follows allegations that the government has failed to keep its promise after announcing last year it had set aside R205 million to employ 520 health inspectors to address the rampant outbreak of foodborne cases that had led to the deaths of 22 children and hundreds being hospitalised.

The announcement came after the food poisoning outbreak was declared a national disaster.

Environmental health inspectors are employed by the department of health and deployed in different municipalities.

Their job is to protect the public against foodborne diseases.

Qualified but unemployed

A 30-year-old unemployed environmental health inspector, who wished to remain anonymous fearing reprisal, said she completed an environmental health practitioner degree at Mangosuthu University of Technology several years ago, but has not got a job.

“After completing my studies, I joined a group of graduates doing community service training for a year. But after that we did not get jobs. I am frustrated because we all see that our services are needed but the government does not want to employ us.

“Looking at the rising number of foodborne poisoning cases tells you that something is wrong and there is a need to employ health inspectors. Our job is to make sure that businesses and other entities comply with public health laws to prevent the spread of diseases and ensure that the public is safe.

‘First line of defence’

“We are the first line of defence when it comes to making sure that residents are safe from foodborne and related problems. Now, the government has said the spaza shops and other small businesses should be regulated but with the low number of health inspectors, how are they going to do that?”

She said the deaths of children due to food poisoning and the rising number of cases could have been avoided if there were enough health inspectors.

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Unused skills and suspended practitioners

Another unemployed practitioner, a 28-year-old who has an environmental health practitioner’s BSc from Tshwane University of Technology, said it was painful to know that he had skills that could save lives but he was unemployed.

He said he was one of the practitioners who could not pay his accreditation fee to the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).

“I know of some people who owe the HPCSA more than R15 000 each and they were suspended, meaning they are no longer allowed to work as health practitioners until they pay to regain their membership,” he said.

Recently, environmental health graduates from different provinces staged a march and demonstrated at the head offices of the department of health and the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, demanding that they be employed.

Speaking on behalf of the unemployed graduates, Zandi Dlamini said it’s been some time since they submitted the memorandum but there has still been no response.

Consumers left vulnerable

Dlamini accused the government of contravening the National Health Act, Section 24 of the constitution of South Africa and the standards of the World Health Organisation.

“This leaves consumers vulnerable to foodborne disease outbreaks, as well as other environmental health issues threatening public health,” said Dlamini.

“About 3 000 cases of food poisoning illnesses were reported to the notifiable medical conditions system. According to the South African Local Government Association, only 1 651 practitioners are employed out of 6 300.

“The country has 4 116 inspectors registered with the HPCSA and ready to serve.”

Department of health spokesperson Foster Mohale did not respond to questions sent to him.

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