By Staff Reporters
- Street vendors near schools are losing business as students stay away due to food poisoning fears and cheap expired food from nearby shops.
- Vendors struggle as school food sales bans, like in Limpopo, cut their income while they compete with shops selling expired goods.
Street food sellers near schools are losing business as food poisoning scares keep students away from their stalls.
Vendors say they’re being hurt by shops selling expired food at low prices.
“You see where we buy our goods, they normally take the expired stuff and put it on sale. Spaza shop owners are always buying the expired goods in bulk and selling them cheaper, and we the people who buy the good stuff don’t get any business because kids prefer to buy from the spaza shops and then they get sick,” said one vendor in the Eastern Cape.
Food vendors at schools also want stricter health checks after recent food poisoning cases, saying unregistered sellers outside school gates put children at risk.
Gladys Ngobeni, who sells at Kwa-Thema Primary School, says they were moved inside the school grounds for safety.
“This way they know the vendors selling food to the learners. Unfortunately in recent years we have seen new vendors operating outside the school premises.
“No one will hold them accountable as they are not registered or known to the school. This is dangerous because whatever they are selling to the learners after school is not known and should the learners fall sick it will be blamed on all of us,” she said.
Dorcas Morudu from Setsing Primary School, where 32 children got sick from bad chocolate, agrees more checking is needed.
“We were invited to trade inside the schools but that was not enough to ensure that we comply. Like spaza shop owners we should also be monitored to ensure that we sell goods that are above board.
“We are all trying to make a living but this should not be at the expense of our children,” she said.
Gogo Yoliswa from Alexandra has been selling snacks outside Pholosho Primary School for more than 10 years.
The elderly vendor says she has struggled to find formal work her entire life. “I used to do piece jobs while I was young. But now, all I do is sell sweets, biscuits and other snacks to school children,” she said.
The recent food poisoning incidents involving children in South Africa have left Yoliswa fearful. “I try to keep my food stuff in the most hygienic place in my house,” she said.
But earlier this week, authorities informed her and other vendors not to return to sell at school premises.
“I have just stocked up in the first week of November. Now I am told not to sell,” she said, worried about how she’ll make a living with no other source of income.
She has built close relationships with the learners over the years. “They were like my own children,” she said.
Yoliswa is now hoping the government will reverse its decision and allow her to resume her work at the school gate.
The crisis has seen 110 children hospitalised at Tamaho Primary in Katlehong, while 27 students got sick from juice at Simunye High. More cases followed at Bongi Cele Secondary, Chili High, and Bronkhurstspruit.
Limpopo’s ban on school food sales has hit vendors as hard.
“Why take away the business of a poor black woman who is just trying to feed her family? Christmas is around the corner; how will we buy food and clothes for our children?” asked vendor Rachel Modiba.
Gauteng Education’s Matome Chiloane says they’re taking action.
“What we’ve begun is to start a campaign around food poisoning, teaching our learners to be alert,” he said.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, vendors say they have fewer sales as exam-writing students avoid street food.
Even King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has raised concerns about foreign shops selling unsafe food to children as street vendors were banned from selling outside schools across the province.
Pictured above: Food vendor Gladys Ngobeni.
Source: Doreen Mokgolo
