Cape Town - Residents in Cape Town have been urged not to dump fish, meat or poultry, as it can have serious health implications.
This comes after a local fisherman discovered a batch of about 50 packets of fish dumped at Broken Road, Fisherman’s Lane in Strandfontein.
The retired police officer and community worker, Keith Blake was out fishing on Sunday and said while sitting on his cooler box he noticed a large flock of seagulls hovering over big holes.
He said the birds were diving down and extracting something from the holes.
His curiosity got the better of him and he went to investigate.
“I saw about 50 sealed packets each containing about six fish. As an ardent fisherman, I realised there was a deadly situation, as a number of the poorest of the poor locals, and this including children who I see begging for food in this vicinity would see this deadly catch as the biblical miracle manna from heaven.
“I was a police officer in Table Bay Harbour and I had seen vagrants die from eating discarded fish from fishing trawlers,” Blake said.
He immediately contacted the local ward councillor, Elton Jansen.
Blake said he noticed two men scrounging on the beach come across the fish and saw them placing it into their bags.
As they were about to leave, he said City of Cape Town officials arrived and Blake showed them where the poisonous fish were lying and immediately pointed out the men who had taken some in fear they might get seriously ill.
Speaking to IOL, Jansen confirmed he was notified by Blake via a voice note about the incident and immediately alerted officials who arranged for the fish to be removed from the beach.
“This is very disappointing that people think so little of their own environment and coast that they would dump dead fish on the beach.
“At this stage, it is not certain if it can be linked to claims that chumming is already happening to lure sharks to the Strandfontein shoreline. We will alert authorities to investigate.
“I want to make an appeal to people to not dump food but to discard it in an appropriate manner. We have poor people living on the street who might think it is still good to eat and potentially be victims of food poisoning that can have devastating results,” Jansen told IOL.
He said a meeting with officials from the fisheries department will be taking place at the Strandfontein Community Hall on Wednesday and this issue will be raised.
However, Blake said the dumping of the fish could be a result of the ongoing load shedding.
“When applying the reasonable man criteria, one has to ask why would an irresponsible person dump such a large quantity of expensive fish, then the logical answer is load shedding.
“People have stocked up large quantities of foodstuffs, and kept it in deep freezers then with the load shedding exercises by Eskom the foodstuffs defrost, freeze and defrost so people become afraid and then dump it like in this case, saving themselves but placing the poor in danger. Our health officials will have to advise the general public and others what can and what cannot be edible if foodstuffs are frozen on and off, is this healthy and safe to eat?
“We need that information as soon as possible,” Blake added.
Mayoral committee member for community services and health, councillor Patricia van der Ross said incidents like this pose a health risk to vulnerable communities and may affect them adversely.
“During our Health and Hygiene Interventions, we will conduct health education and emphasise the importance of reporting illegal dumping, and explain the removal process of illegal fish or general food waste and associated health risks.
“The ingestion of spoiled fish can result in food poisoning which is typically associated with symptoms such as abdominal cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.
“General household food waste should be packed separately and put out with normal domestic waste on collection days.
“When discarding larger quantities of food waste, an application for a permit needs to be made with the solid waste department, declaring the type and quantities of food needing to be discarded,” Van der Ross said.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL