Mayor says sorry to traders
TWEET: ‘MASHABA APOLOGISES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA POST, NOT FOR PROTECTING THE RESIDENTS’
‘Not an attack on any person or group – informal traders or foreign residents.’
After receiving scathing criticism for his comments about informal traders, foreign nationals and the handling of meat products, City of Joburg executive mayor Herman Mashaba took to Twitter yesterday to say sorry.
“I apologise most sincerely to our residents for my comments relating to the meat also presenting a potential risk of an Ebola outbreak,” he tweeted in a statement titled “Mashaba apologises for social media post, not for protecting the residents”.
The mayor found himself in hot water for his original tweet, which read: “I have just personally stopped this illegal act in our city. How do we allow meat trading like this? I am waiting for @ AsktheChiefJMPD to come and attend before we experience a breakdown of unknown diseases in our @CityofJoburgZA.”
In response to people’s outrage sparked by his tweet, Mashaba responded: “We are going to sit back and allow people like you to bring us Ebolas in the name of small business. Health of our people first. Our health facilities are already stretched to the limit.”
In his statement today, the mayor said he never intended for his comments to be “construed as an attack on any person or group – informal traders or our foreign residents”.
Mashaba said he had asked the city’s health inspectors to work with informal and formal traders in an effort to help them understand the safety standards of the city and their importance.
“My reaction was borne out of a situation in which so many of our residents lack access to quality healthcare and are vulnerable to the kind of outbreaks that can arise from improper treatment of food,” he said.
The EFF Johannesburg region said it had noted his apology.