Warning against unsafe paraffin products
Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies says paraffin stoves knocked over should not spill paraffin.
Manufacturers and distributors of unsafe paraffin products could end up in prison, warns Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.
“Government is coming on to manufacturers and distributors of unsafe paraffin products and when they are arrested, they will be prosecuted,” he said in a statement.
It was issued at the Safe Paraffin Appliance Campaign conducted this week in Theunissen in the Free State.
Davis said all paraffin stoves and heaters made and sold in South Africa had to be in line with standards set out by the SA Bureau of Standards and comply with the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications.
“Many households in South Africa use paraffin stoves every day. South Africa has some of the strictest laws in the world governing the safety of these stoves, but sub-standard stoves continue causing fires that result in tragic injury to people and destruction in neighbourhoods, year after year.”
He said paraffin stoves knocked over were not supposed to spill paraffin.
Davies said there were thousands of South African households still using paraffin for cooking, heating and lighting.
Some of these stoves were a danger because of their poor quality.
He said many people in informal settlements had lost their homes and belongings in fires caused by sub-standard paraffin stoves.
Some even lost their lives because the paraffin products they used were cheap and of inferior quality.
“We believe these households deserve a high quality, safe stoves to help solve the problem of fire danger.”
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