A 75-year-old Mpumalanga woman handed herself over to the Hawks for her alleged involvement in the repacking and selling of rotten, expired food for human consumption on an Mpumalanga farm to an unsuspecting public. According to Hawks spokesperson Col Magonseni Nkosi, Wilhemina Jacoba and another suspect, Phakamani Hlongwane, 36, handed themselves in to the Hawks’ Secunda-based serious organised crime investigation unit on Monday. This was after they were linked to Pieter Grobler, 31, and his family members Mark Lombard, 29, and Sonnet Lombard, 46, who were arrested in February for allegedly distributing rotten and expired food for human consumption.
“The five accused are charged for contravention of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics, and Disinfectants Act, corruption, fraud, and money laundering. Rotten and expired foodstuff that was not fit for human consumption was disposed of. “During Grobler’s arrest, several items, including vehicles and cool rooms, were seized.
Rotten and expired foodstuff that was not fit for human consumption was disposed of,” he said. Grobler, a pig farmer, was arrested after the Hawks received a tip-off that he was selling expired and rotten food that he had asked for from retailers under the guise of giving it to his pigs. When the Sowetan team arrived at the farm, they found a truck parked outside filled with cheese that had mould on it.
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Inside the warehouse a pungent smell hung in the air. The dirty floor was covered with plastic wrappings, flour and yoghurt. According to one of the employees, selling rotten food was a family business, and Grobler had taken over the business after his father died in 2021.
“When I got here years ago, I found them doing the very same thing I am doing, repacking and selling these kinds of [expired] foods. He took over the business from his father.”
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