Byline: Thendo Funyufunyu

Monday, 24 April 2023

The Municipal Health Service Unit from Gert Sibande District municipality (GSDM) held a food safety event at Evander Taxi Rank on Friday, 14 April 2023.

The purpose was for the municipality to support everyone who sells food at a taxi rank and to alert them about necessary documents needed to allow them to sell food at taxi rank.

Law enforcement, LED, the Department of Traffic, and the Vukta Taxi Association were among the stakeholders present to lend support.

Everyone who is currently selling food at a taxi rank or who has an interest in doing so has been advised by the law enforcement in Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) to obtain a permit from the municipality and to register a certificate of acceptability (COA) for inspection purposes to ensure that you are selling healthy food in a clean environment.

They further warned them to be more vigilant of scammers who come and pretend to be inspectors and they demand money from them so that they don’t report an unhealthy environment to the municipality.

The Gert Sibande District Municipality gave large cooler boxes, brooms, food rules charts, and certificates of attendance to all individuals selling food at the Evander taxi rank to show their support.

“We value the help we received from our municipal department today, as well as the gifts they offered us; these things will help our business to expand, therefore we also appreciate the chance to serve meals at the Evander taxi rank,” said Mavis Mathobela who sell food at taxi rank.

Vendors were thrilled to see that the municipality has initiated such an initiative to help them expand their business legally, according to Betty Nkosi, who also sells food at the Evander taxi rank. 

Betty Nkosi stated that ever since she started selling food at the taxi rank in the year 1995, she has never encountered this kind of support from the municipality, but she is grateful.

Cllr. Nomkhosi Zulu, a member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for community and social service, expressed his sincere gratitude and thanked everyone for attending the event to learn how to run a successful business legally with the municipality, maintain a clean environment, and continue to prepare healthy foods.