Five years ago, the NICD concluded that Tiger Brands' Polokwane meat processing facility was the source of the biggest listeriosis outbreak in South Africa, yet no progress has been made to compensate victims, writes Father Stan Muyebe. Five years ago, the former health minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, announced that Tiger Brands' Polokwane meat processing facility was the source of the biggest listeriosis outbreak South Africa had ever seen. Thousands of people were harmed as a result of consuming processed meat produced at a Tiger Brands factory, and over 200 people died. Many are still awaiting justice.
Five years ago, the NICD concluded that Tiger Brands' Polokwane meat processing facility was the source of the biggest listeriosis outbreak in South Africa, yet no progress has been made to compensate victims, writes Father Stan Muyebe.
Thursday, 4 March 2021, marked exactly three years since the then health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, held a press briefing to report on the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD’s) investigation into the source of the 2016 to 2018 listeriosis outbreak in South Africa – the world’s largest and deadliest. Through contact tracing, whole-genome sequencing and other scientific techniques, the NICD concluded that Tiger Brands’ Polokwane meat processing facility was the source of the outbreak.
The breakthrough in the NICD investigation came on 27 January 2018 when nine children from a Soweto crèche were admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital with gastrointestinal-related illness after consuming Tiger Brands polony, which was produced at its Polokwane facility. The children and samples from the polony they had eaten tested positive for the ST6 genetic variant of listeria – the variant found in more than 93% of case patients who had tested for listeriosis.