This resulted in the largescale closure of spaza shops belonging to foreign nationals by community members led by the Operation Dudula Movement as well as by municipal officials. In a statement issued on Thursday, SAHRC chairperson Bongani Majola said it had in 2018 conducted a preliminary inquiry which found no evidence that there was a sale of fake or expired goods in Soweto. "The commission hereby confirms that in September 2018, and of its own accord, its Gauteng provincial office held a preliminary inquiry into allegations that `fake' or expired goods had been sold in Soweto around August 2018. The allegations of the sale of these goods led to xenophobic tensions, initially in Soweto, which spread to other parts of the Gauteng province," Majola states in a letter to Zungula. According to the SAHRC, the inquiry was conducted with help from various stakeholders. "There was no evidence provided to show specific incidences of fake food being sold. Submissions from municipalities and large food producers supported the above analysis, while submissions from the communitybased organisations were based on conjecture, anecdotal evidence and were underlain with xenophobic stereotyping," said the SAHRC. Furthermore, the commission said following recent incidents of alleged fake and expired foods in Soweto and other parts of the country, it believed these incidents warranted an investigation. "At this stage, the commission is doing an analysis of whether the commission is the appropriate institution to conduct such an investigation and analysis. This is because on the face of it, the issues raised are broad and encompass food contamination, the alleged sale of expired food, the application of health and safety bylaws and the drawing of a causal nexus between consumption of such food with the reported deaths," the commission said. The ATM said on X: "This is a tone deaf response by the SAHRC to ... the deaths of South African children due to counterfeit products being sold." The party called on government to deploy environmental health officials to monitor food sold by vendors. Zungula said: "The deployment of environmental health practitioners to various communities across the country would not only bolster food safety but also provide muchneeded employment opportunities for these skilled individuals. "The move towards employment of environmental health practitioners is a logical and sustainable solution to the food safety crisis that we currently face."

Source: Saturday Star