The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has announced that members of the public can contact the commission free of charge and facilitate the seamless registration of complaints and tip-offs related to the sale of fake or expired foodstuffs.
For a period of three months, starting on 1 December 2024, members of the public can contact the hotline with the support of the Association of Comms and Technology (ACT).
“The NCC welcomes the support of ACT and individual member mobile operators for agreeing to zero-rate calls to the NCC’s contact centre. Some stakeholders had raised concerns that since the contact centre number is paid for, this may limit the ability of those with limited means to reach the contact centre.
“This intervention will therefore ensure that consumers can report incidents on the sale of fake or expired food as soon as such is identified,” the NCC’s Acting Commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu said.
This comes amid rising concerns about contaminated food linked to the deaths of several schoolchildren in some communities across South Africa.
The collaborative effort by the NCC and ACT members follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s public announcement on 15 November 2024, where he called for the need to educate consumers about food safety and labelling and for suspicions of fake or expired foodstuffs being sold to be reported to the NCC.
“The NCC is expected to play a leading role in investigating the sale of fake and expired foodstuffs throughout the country.
“Therefore, it is crucial to ensure that the NCC’s contact centre is available to a wide spectrum of society and that incidents of food contamination or the sale of expired foods are reported timeously to enable an effective response,” said the commission in a statement.
ACT CEO, Nomvuyiso Batyi, commended the NCC for its proactive efforts to address food safety fears and reaching out to join hands with the telecommunications industry in the national effort to curb the crisis.
“We are pleased to confirm that members of ACT that offer voice calls have agreed individually to accede to NCC’s request for its contact centre number for three months effective 1 December 2024. We trust that this measure will provide critical assistance to the NCC during this period and we encourage the NCC to engage directly with the respective network operators if challenges arise,” Batyi said.
Consumers can lodge complaints through the NCC’s e-Service portal at https://eservice.thencc.org.za/ or provide tip-offs through the contact centre hotline at 012 065 1940.
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