Latest news with #Mayet
Daily Maverick
31-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Call for urgent SA pesticide action plan to protect farm workers — and consumers
NGOs report limited resources for consumer education and pesticide testing, which they believe hinders effective enforcement of pesticide limits. They also perceive a governmental reluctance to implement significant changes. The African Centre for Biodiversity (Acbio) released a compilation of the past two decades of research on pesticide use in South Africa on 21 July 2025, in the form of a searchable and downloadable database. The centre hopes this will help with advocacy for policy change and the banning of certain pesticides. The aim is to help 'collective efforts to push the government to prioritise the urgent complete overhaul of the regulatory framework governing the use of pesticides, ensuring its rigorous implementation and heeding the persistent calls for the banning of the most hazardous chemicals and the phase-out of others'. Executive director of the African Centre for Biodiversity Mariam Mayet said it probably took about six researchers four to five months to complete the database, along with computer science specialists and assistance from artificial intelligence. In an interview with Daily Maverick, Mayet said, 'The first thing we had to do was to find all the research papers over a period of two decades. We decided to look at what happened over 20 years. And that took a long time, because we had to find, firstly, all the peer review journal articles, then any other research reports and documents that were put together by researchers and civil society over the last 20 years'. Mayet said they interviewed the researchers to understand what impact the papers had and if the government responded to the findings, although some were in intergovernmental discussions. Mayet pointed out that the government was hard to pin down for engagement on agro-toxins. 'We had to go and interview a lot of these researchers who had participated in intergovernmental bodies to find out the extent to which they … made submissions that may not have been in the public domain… But then also, we did follow-ups with every researcher or institution to find out from them what happened after they published the research. 'Did they bring this to the attention of the government? What were the steps that the government took, if at all? Because the one frustration we've been having for the last 20 years or more is just complete intransigence on the part of the state. 'You know, Act 36 was passed at the time when King George VI was the head of state of South Africa … [nearly] 80 years ago,' Mayet said. The Act she is referring to is the Act 36 of 1947, known as the Fertilisers, Farm Feeds, Seeds and Remedies Act, which regulates the registration and sale of fertilisers, farm feeds, agricultural remedies and stock remedies. Its key provisions include registration, regulation and appointment of officials. Mayet is part of a large group of activists who have been calling for the laws to be updated and for other measures to be implemented to protect vulnerable groups such as farmworkers from exposure, which can lead to illnesses ranging from skin irritation and respiratory illnesses, and have been linked to cancer. Mayet says that the long-term risk to all South African citizens who are not in the agricultural space is exposure through food that has pesticides, and from water sources. This alarm has been sounded for more than two decades and is part of the reason why Acbio created the database. 'They also made a 2010 policy where they outlined the objective of the government to phase out 116 highly hazardous pesticides and reform the legislation. Nothing happened after that, and nothing happens no matter how much you knock at the door of the registrar. 'So, the frustration on the part of the researchers also had to be captured and recorded, and to illustrate the extent of the research actually published in the country and to put it all in one place and then to categorise it accordingly so that people could easily research it and then also provide a list of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) that are still in use in South Africa and banned in the EU,' Mayet said. '…it's just a resource that we put in the public domain that we hope to be a living document. We also email the compendium to every researcher to ask them if they have any other research in the offing that they would like to bring to our attention so that we may upload it. We would like this to be a living document,' Mayet said. Acbio recommended that SA urgently needed to develop a comprehensive pesticide action plan, which should 'be aligned with international best practices, phase out or ban the most hazardous pesticides and outline a clear roadmap for supporting farmers to transition out of industrial chemical-based food, fibre, and crop production systems to systems that are grounded in agroecological principles, social justice, equity and job creation.' Terbufos In June, the South African government officially banned the importation and use of Terbufos, commonly known as Halephirimi. This came after children died from food poisoning in Soweto last year. These deaths were linked to food contaminated with the toxic pesticide, classified as an organophosphate. This came after an investigation by the inter-ministerial committee on food-borne illnesses, which focused on the dangers of organophosphate pesticides. This unfortunate incident brought the dangers of pesticides to the public's attention. Mayet said this showed the significance of activism and consumer knowledge. 'I think that the Terbufos case was the one case that put the issue of pesticides on the national agenda for the first time, and I think that it only did that because a lot of us made such a big issue of it. 'You would remember that the initial responses were very much to blame spaza shops, to underplay it, not to blame it on pesticides, but on food contamination. 'It's because we made a huge big issue of the fact that it was a harmful chemical, an HHP, a 1A highly toxic chemical, and that we also had a pesticide tribunal, people's tribunal; we had judges giving evidence to the portfolio committee,' said Mayet. Funding Although Mayet acknowledges the steps taken so far to educate people on food safety after the death of children in Soweto, she says education on the extent of pesticide exposure people face daily is lacking. Organisations such as Acbio do some of that work, but she says funding is limited, therefore limiting advocacy efforts on both consumer education and policy lobbying. 'I do believe that there's very little public awareness of the extent to which, first, that there are pesticides in the food that we're consuming, and that there's no testing by the government of food that South Africans are consuming.' The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Acbio and Women on Farms have an upcoming documentary after testing food products they bought from a supermarket in South Africa for pesticides. 'They all exceeded the maximum residue level[s] set by our government. So, our food is laden with agrochemicals. The public has no idea.' Mayet says the solution is a massive consumer campaign, campaigning for the labelling of foods, and forcing the government to test and inform the public on what pesticides are in foods. 'It does beg for a consumer campaign, but we don't have strong consumer civil society groups in the country ready to take up this issue. So, we can't do it because we're too small, and we don't have enough resources. It's a time of tightening of belts, and a lot of European donors are cutting back.' In a written response to Daily Maverick, the Department of Agriculture said it participated in several multi-stakeholder forums that dealt with the broader issues of chemical management. The department noted that 'the structures that are in place are not sufficient to deal with challenges of unsafe use of pesticides in the country'. Asked what it took to ban a pesticide, the department said: 'The department's mandate is to ensure that farmers and the public have access to effective and safe pesticides. The ban is only considered when there is evidence that the risk associated with the pesticide is not manageable. Thus, the department will institute the ban when there is evidence that the costs of using the particular pesticides far exceed the benefits.' DM
IOL News
20-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Bellville business owner fined R96,000 for failing to submit tax returns
The Bellville Magistrate's Court has fined a business owner R96 000 for failing to submit various tax returns over several years. "Mayet was the sole member of A and Y Wholesale Retail Enterprise CC, which traded as a wholesale retail enterprise trading under the name and style of Plastipak. The Bellville Magistrate's Court has fined a businessman for failure to submit income tax returns, Value Added Tax (VAT) returns, and Pay as You Earn (PAYE) returns. "The company was registered for Income Tax, VAT, PAYE (EMP 201) and PAYE (EMP 501). "Mayet was the representative VAT vendor, representative employer, and the public officer of the company at the time of the commission of the offences. "He failed to submit Income Tax, VAT, PAYE (EMP 201) and PAYE (EMP 501) returns when they were due. "The offences were committed over several years: VAT returns for a year, PAYE (EMP 201) for two years and PAYE (EMP 501) for five years," Ntabazalila said. "The returns remained outstanding until they were submitted on May 27, 2024. "The accused and his company were convicted on an Income Tax return on behalf of A and Y Wholesale Retail Enterprise CC, two counts of failure to submit VAT returns, five counts of failure to submit PAYE (EMP 201) returns and eight counts of failure to submit PAYE (EMP 501) returns."
Daily Maverick
13-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Cabinet approves Terbufos ban in crucial step towards protecting SA's children
Following repeated deaths of children linked to the deadly pesticide Terbufos, the Cabinet has announced a ban on importing and selling the product. Speaking on Thursday, 12 June 2025, at a post-Cabinet media briefing, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced: 'Cabinet has approved the ban of Terbufos in South Africa, a chemical compound classified as an organophosphate, commonly used as an insecticide and pesticide.' The minister said the Cabinet had received a report from the inter-ministerial committee on food-borne illnesses, with 'a special focus on organophosphate pesticides'. In 2024, six children in Naledi, Soweto, died after consuming Terbufos, a pesticide commonly used within the agricultural sector in South Africa but that is commonly sold illegally for home use at informal stores. More than 20 children died in Gauteng in 2024 in incidents believed to be linked to spaza shops and illegally sold pesticides. Earlier in February, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) lobbied Parliament for the banning of Terbufos. As Daily Maverick reported in March, despite a public outcry and a promised crackdown on Terbufos, it is still sold in spaza shops and on street corners in Johannesburg. Details unclear It's not clear yet when the ban will come into effect. On Thursday night, Joylene van Wyk, the spokesperson of Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, said: 'We note the Cabinet decision, and we are working on the legal notice to implement the decision.' Mariam Mayet, the director of the African Centre for Biodiversity, said banning the product would be challenging for the government. 'They have to get their act together and ensure that Terbufos is removed completely from our country, from urban areas, from the streets, and from the farms.' Mayet said she remained concerned 'because the ban needs implementation and our government has not been seen to be able to control and exercise proper enforcement around it'. She described the announcement as bittersweet. The African Centre for Biodiversity was part of a collective of organisations and civil society groups that wrote to Steenhuisen in December 2024 to demand the ban of Terbufos as well as other hazardous pesticides. 'I was feeling very sad yesterday because I felt that, did it mean that our children had to die first?' she said. Spaza shops During Thursday's briefing, Ntshavheni said: 'While specifics to determine the exposure by the children remain uncertain, the possibility that the children consumed food contaminated with Terbufos purchased from a local spaza shop remains the most viable explanation.' Mayet suggested the minister was scapegoating the spaza shops while the government had failed to enforce its regulations. She said Ntshavheni 'still insists that there's a link between the poisoning in spaza shops. So they still haven't given up on the issue of spaza shops because we know that the proliferation was illegal because it was registered only for agricultural use and it landed up in urban areas.' According to the civil society groups' earlier calls for the ban, Terbufos has been banned for use within the European Union (EU) since 2009, but some countries within the EU region 'apply double standards and continue to allow the production and export of Terbufos, especially to developing countries'. Terbufos has been banned in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by Angola, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, Tanzania, and Zambia. Botswana's ban came into effect in December 2024. Zimbabwe has not imported any Terbufos since 2002. DM
