RAPULA MOATSHE
THERE was a hive of activities in Laudium and Wierda Park yesterday during a joint crime-busting operation targeting spaza shops operated illegally and selling expired foodstuff in the City of Tshwane.
Tshwane Metro Police Department officers confiscated many goods that had passed their sell-by dates and issued fines for non-compliance with the by-laws. A truck and a bakkie belonging to one of the shop owners was impounded after they were found to have fake licence discs.
Canned food, noodles, Disprin tablets and illegal cigarettes were among the items confiscated for being expired.
The joint operation was led by the newly-appointed chief of metro police, Yolanda Faro, accompanied by three members of the mayoral committee and municipal officials.
Finance MMC Peter Sutton said the team inspected various establishments to check if they didn’t sell expired food and contravene by-laws in general.
He hailed the operation as a success, especially after the team confiscated some expired food, which posed health danger to consumers.
“This is all about keeping the community safe and making sure that we interact with the communities in a way for them to enforce their rights and to make sure we proper by-law enforcement and bring law and order in our communities,” he said.
Sutton said he believed that the community of Laudium was in good hands for as long as operations such as those carried out yesterday were in force.
“We will continue to roll out these operations throughout Tshwane,” Sutton said.
One of the traders landed in trouble for selling fast food on the pavement without a valid trading permit.
Community Safety MMC, also a Freedom Front Plus caucus leader, Grandi Theunissen, said the operation also focused on cleaning up the area and getting rid of illegal traders on the roadside.
“We have found abandoned vehicles and we have found a very unhygienic place where rooms are being rented out for between R1 500 and R2 100 a month, mostly to undocumented foreign nationals. People’s houses or buildings are not zoned for that purpose,” he said.
The Department of Health, he said, has already condemned the building because it was unhygienic, adding that a prohibition notice would be issued.
Illegal electricity connections were among serious concerns raised by officials during yesterday’s operation.
Theunissen said the inspection for expired food came in the wake of reports that some people “have passed away because they bought expired goods”.
“We are busy with a clean-up today at Laudium. This will be a continuing process to clean up the city. Over the weekend, we had an operation in the city centre; we confiscated liquor sold from outlets illegally,” he said.
MMC for Health Rina Marx said a spaza shop owner was slapped with a fine of “R5 000 each” for not complying with the municipal by-laws.
“We found a vehicle with a licence disc that has been copied and pasted on the window. The vehicle will be taken away. We also took away stock for someone trading illegally on the pavement. The stock was just being sold on the sidewalk and no one wanted to take ownership of it,” she said.
Pretoria News