Muluzi says Malawi ban of South African meat products is temporally over listeria scare

Minister of Health Atupele Muluzi on Thursday told journalist in Lilongwe that his ministry has temporally banned the banned import and sale of certain South African processed meat products after a listeria outbreak that has reportedly killed at least 180 people.

Minister of Health, Atupele Muluzi: Malawi has become the latest in African countries which have banned processed meat products imported from South Africa

Muluzi said the ban has been instituted because South Africa is one of the major meat and meat products suppliers in Malawi.

“Government of Malawi wishes to inform the business community and the general public that government has with immediate effect instituted a temporally ban on the importation of processed meat and meat products including polony, Vienna, sausages and cold meats from South Africa,” Muluzi said.

The Minister of Health said the ban is in accordance with the provision in the Public Health Act, Import Rule and Regulations under the Control and Diseases Act 66:02 and the Meat Products Act 67:02.

Muluzi said there is no need for the public to panic as government has put in place measures to avoid the outbreak from spreading locally and that it has the capacity to do laboratory confirmation of the disease and assured the treatment is available.

The disease is readily treatable with antibiotics.

The Malawi Competition and Fair Trading Commission asked wholesalers and retailers on Monday to remove imported meat products from South Africa from their shelves in the wake of a deadly listeria outbreak linked to a factory there.

Malawi’s moves come after Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia halted processed meat imports from South Africa, where 180 people have died in the worst listeriosis outbreak in recorded history.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
2 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
#DzukaniAmalawi
#DzukaniAmalawi
6 years ago

Honourable Atupele Muluzi, can you please work with Min of Trade & Industry, MITC and EDF to promote and/or support food processing companies to substitute what Malawi is importing from SA. Malawi has been talking about promoting import substitution companies and yet we are blind to the irony of importing processed food. This is a good oppprtunity tonthink deely about funding food processing companies so that in 6 months time Malawi is self reliant on processed food. Don’t outsource food security.

Mtondoli Jonazi
Mtondoli Jonazi
6 years ago

So…there is huge market for (imported) processed meat products here in Malawi? I am sure we have ng’ombe, mbuzi, nkhosa, nkhuku, mbalame mutchire’mu and obviously plenty of land where we can raise ziweto’zi to meet the demand (if it can’t be met). Brilliant.

So we just need the equipment for processing, and of course the lab to make sure listeria and all the other ‘rias’ are not present.

I forgot about the electricity..We don’t have. Damn! We are screwed. Ki ki ki ki

Read previous post:
Malawian singer Hazel Mak tells BBC: ‘We have to stick together as women’

Female solidarity is as important as music to Malawian singer Hazel Mak. She is behind a development programme called Malawi...

Close