The cabinet has approved the ban on the importation of the harmful pesticide Turbefos, which caused the death of six children in Soweto last year.
Briefing the media on Thursday on the outcomes of a cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the cabinet had received a report from the interministerial committee on foodborne illnesses with a special focus on organophosphate pesticides.
The committee was advised by the ministerial advisory council on foodborne illnesses appointed by health minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
“The MAC [ministerial advisory council] conducted work on the availability and use of Turbefos, [commonly known as Galiphirimi], a highly hazardous product that caused the death of six children in Naledi, Soweto.
“While specifics to determine the exposure by the children remain uncertain, the possibility that the children consumed food contaminated with Terbufos purchased from a local spaza shop remains the most viable explanation,” Ntshavheni said.
“Cabinet has approved the ban [on] the importation of Terbufos in SA, a chemical compound classified as an organophosphate, commonly used as an insecticide and pesticide.”
She said the agriculture department would lead the consultation process on the ban in line with its 2010 plan to “eradicate poisonous insecticides and pesticides over a period and work on identifying safer alternatives to Turbefos”.
Turbefos, which is widely used in the agricultural sector, is banned in Europe. Local civil society organisations have been calling for this to be done in SA as well due to its danger to human health.
In his address to the nation on November 15 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “After stringent testing, a chip packet found on one of the children who had died had traces of Terbufos on both the inside and outside the packet.”
By December 2024 at least 890 incidents of food-borne illnesses had been reported across all provinces, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal the worst affected, while Limpopo, the Free State and Mpumalanga recorded dozens of incidents.
The government allocated R15m for rapid testing of suspected contaminated food products and setting up a R500m fund to support spaza shops and other businesses in the townships and rural areas.
• Meanwhile, the cabinet extended its condolences to the families of those who lost their lives during flooding across various areas in the Eastern Cape.
“To date a total of 57 people have lost [their] lives. Several families have also been displaced and infrastructure has been damaged in both Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal,” the cabinet statement reads.
“Government is co-ordinating rescue and support operations through the national and provincial disaster management centres as co-ordinated by the IMC [interministerial committee] on disaster management. Emergency teams have also been deployed from Gqeberha, East London and the Chris Hani district to the affected areas to support local responders.”
• The cabinet welcomed the approval by the National Assembly of the 2025 Fiscal Framework that “will increase government spending on infrastructure investment (R1-trillion over the three-year period)”.
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