Africa-Press – South-Sudan. On Saturday, the South Sudan National Bureau of Standards (SSNBS) destroyed over 30 tonnes of 5,000 expired food and non-food items.
According to the SSNBS, those food and non-food items were collected in December 2023 during the campaign that managed to collect expired, damaged, counterfeit, and substandard goods from the markets.
The chairperson of the SSNBS, Dr. Kuorwel Kuai Kuorwel, said the impounded goods were destroyed procedurally, in compliance with the laws of the Bureau of Statistics.
“We, therefore, want to warn the business community that selling expired goods is an offence under Section 27, Subsection 1(c) of the SSNBS Act, 2012.,” he stated.
The government should ensure that this campaign continues and extends to the states. Imagine if more than 30 tonnes of expired food were destroyed in the capital city of Juba. How safe are our people in the states where this exercise is being conducted?
Also, our traders should be more concerned about the health of their consumers. They should not focus more on making money at the expense of consumers’ safety.
As sign of being responsible, those traders are supposed to ensure that they destroy those expired goods before even the authorities come for them. Unfortunately, most traders doing business in the country have taken advantage of the high illiteracy rate among the local population to defraud them.
So, the government needs to do regular check-ups and not wait until the end of the year because different goods have different expiration dates.
Also, some of our government leaders are very defensive of the traders. They often act as shields by protecting the traders who might have gone against the law.
This sometimes makes it hard for many government institutions to conduct their activities simply due to interference from their own leaders against government policies.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
For More News And Analysis About South-Sudan Follow Africa-Press
