NMBM LAUNCHES FOOD SAFETY AND PESTICIDE AWARENESS PROGRAMME
Published: June 23, 2026<< BACK TO NEWS
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The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has today, 23 June 2026, commenced a programme to raise awareness and empower shop owners through workshops on food poisoning and pesticide handling following the alleged poisoning cases recently experienced within the Metro.
The programme will be implemented in partnership with the Department of Agriculture. Part of the reason for the awareness and information empowerment plan is the prevalence and wide footprint of illegal pesticides that are easily accessible through local spaza shops and informal traders.
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor, Councillor Babalwa Lobishe, said the programme is a clear intervention aimed at mitigating the risks posed by different poisonous substances that are sold in local shops.
"As the Municipality, it is our primary interest to ensure that shops operating within our communities handle and sell safe food and products. Where there are processes and regulations that must be followed in handling and selling certain products that may pose a risk to people's lives, we need to make sure that shop owners are aware of these requirements. It is for this reason that our Environmental Health Officers will be trained on these matters so that they can enforce these regulations," said Executive Mayor Lobishe. As part of this plan, the planned activities include a workshop conducted by the Department of Agriculture for Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Environmental Health Practitioners to capacitate them to identify these pesticides and drive compliance during inspections. The workshop was held on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, at the Korsten Environmental Health Offices.
On Wednesday, another workshop will be hosted for informal traders. The main objective of this engagement is to encourage informal traders to surrender these poisonous substances, as it is an offence to be in possession of such illegal pesticides. On completion of the workshops, the Environmental Health officers will enroll in an awareness and enforcement programme across the Metro.
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