Poor health conditions leave bad taste

By Barry Bateman

Rotting meat, open sewage pipes and illegal immigrants were just a few of the problems female law enforcement officials had to contend with in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

On Friday women from the Tshwane Metro Police, SAPS, immigration services, municipal health, waste management and fire safety embarked on an exercise dubbed "operation baby girl" to highlight law enforcement by female officers during Women's Month.

Nine illegal immigrants were detained, one food outlet closed and 38 fines totalling R53 300 issued for failure to comply with health and safety regulations.

Metro Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Alta Fourie said that in order for the city to obtain satisfactory levels of bylaw compliance, joint interventions such as this were required.

Fourie said they visited liquor outlets, places of entertainment and formal businesses and enforced among other laws, tobacco legislation, the Liquor Act and the Business Act.

At a supermarket in Esselen Street, an environmental health practitioner made a sickening discovery.

In the housing of a bandsaw, used to slice meat, rotting meat had collected. This meant that as the saw blade rotated it passed through the rotting meat before cutting through the fresh meat.

The health practitioner issued a fine and ordered the owner to rectify the problem immediately.

A fast food outlet which claims to be the "leading steak zone in Sunnyside" was shut down because of several health infringements.

The entire operation was not up to standard and was a serious public health risk, according to officers at the scene.

Fourie said the officers confiscated thousands of rands worth of alcohol from the same shop because the owner failed to produce a licence to sell liquor.

"The operation was a success even though we only visited a few outlets because we did not have the time to search all of Sunnyside.

"We will follow up soon to ensure that the shop owners have complied with the regulations," she said.