CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Themba Mgodla needed a job so badly, he accepted a load of old food in payment for helping get the cookies, candies, jams and juice onto a truck. Once he got to his squatter camp in western South Africa, he found his neighbors were even more desperate, snatching from him goods he had planned to sell.
In the end, Mgodla, who had sampled the groceries, was among more than 100 Polile Park squatter camp residents in Cape Town who were treated for food poisoning over the weekend.
"We only saw that the food was spoiled hours later, when people came to us and said their children were sick," Mgodla said.
Wilfred Solomons-Johannes of the city's emergency response department said all those sickened had recovered by Monday. Solomons-Johannes said authorities are trying to determine how to proceed with charges under the city's health regulations.
Mgodla said he had gone to a factory food shop and, seeing a driver loading a truck, asked for work. He said the driver was supposed to have taken the goods, some with expiration dates from 2000 and 2001, to a waste dump. Instead, the driver offered to let Mgodla have the load in exchange for his labor — saving what would have been a long trip to the dump.
Polile Park is near one of Cape Town's most popular beaches. Upscale houses are nearby, but the 1,000 or so squatter camp residents live in zinc-roofed shacks without electricity, and rely on communal water supplies and toilets.
Zithobile Maqamunca, a community leader in the camp, said he was working with police and city officials to collect the tainted food Monday. But poverty was making that difficult, he said.
"Some of the people don't want to give it up."
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