South Africa: Out-of-date food makes more than 100 sick

South African officials said that more than 100 people were treated for food poisoning after eating groceries dumped near their Cape Town shacks over the weekend.

Local man Themba Mgodla told police 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. But instead, the driver offered to let Mr Mgodla have the load in exchange for his labour - saving what would have been a long trip to the dump.

He planned to sell the food, but once he got to his squatter camp, some of his hungry neighbours snatched goods from him.

Mr Mgodla, who had sampled the groceries himself, was among more than 100 Polile Park squatter camp residents in Cape Town who were treated for food poisoning over the weekend after eating the biscuits, jams and sweets.

"We only saw that the food was spoiled hours later, when people came to us and said their children were sick," he said.

Wilfred Solomons-Johannes of the city's emergency response department said all those made ill had recovered by yesterday.

Mr Solomons-Johannes said authorities are trying to determine how to proceed with charges under the city's health regulations.

Polile Park is near one of Cape Town's most popular beaches. Expensive houses are located 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 yesterday. But poverty was making that difficult, he said.

"Some of the people don't want to give it up."