The death of two girls in the Vredefort township, Mokwallo, necessitates the urgent finalisation of the Free State Integrated Local Economic Development and Transformation Bill.
This was stressed by Thabo Meeko, MEC for Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, reacting to the deaths of Palesa (3) and Bohlale Kutoane (4) on 17 October.
It is alleged that the siblings died after consuming snacks purchased from a foreign-owned tuck shop in their area.
It is not clear if the snack packs had expired and whether they were genuine products.
Meeko said the bill aims at regulating licensing and foreign ownership of certain business categories through prescribed quartos, providing for exclusive ownership and operation of certain specified business categories for citizens, and mandatory and exclusive sourcing and procurement by the state organs of locally produced commodities.
The provincial Department of Health has announced that a post-mortem will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death.
