SAPToA REPORTS CROPLIFE AND FOOD FOR MZANSI FOR WEAPONISING CHILDREN IN COMIC BOOK AND FOR FALSE AND DANGEROUS ADVERTISING

Press release: South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins

30 January 2025

The South African People’s Tribunal on AgroToxins (SAPToA) has submitted substantive complaints to the South African Human Rights Commission and the Advertising Regulatory Board, calling for the withdrawal of a comic book published by Food for Mzanzi and CropLife (representing the agrochemical industry), titled, Palesa’s Brave Discovery. A guide to why children should not have access to hazardous substances, because it violates the rights of children and consumers.

According to SAPToA, the comic book contains dangerous and inappropriate messages that infringe on children’s rights and amount to harmful, misleading, and false advertising. Alarmingly, the coalition contends that the comic book is a marketing tool rather than an educational material – the intention of which is not to keep children safe from highly hazardous substances but rather to deflect attention and responsibility away from CropLife and advance its narrative that foreigners and spaza shops are to blame for the deaths and illnesses caused by the lethal and highly hazardous pesticide (HHP), Terbufos.

The comic was produced in the wake of the spate of reported pesticide poisonings of primary school children from poor black townships in Naledi, Soweto, which resulted in several deaths in October 2024, for which the HHP, Terbufos, is undeniably responsible.

Palesa’s Brave Discovery follows a seven- or eight-year-old girl named Palesa, who lives in Orlando, Soweto. According to the booklet, following illness and death in her community, Palesa realises that spaza shops are selling illegal and unlabelled pesticides that are the cause of the problem. She works with her teacher to inform the community about the hazards of illegal poisons and the benefits of pesticides for healthy homes and crops. She and community leaders then work together with CropLife to remove these substances from the community. Palesa’s actions ultimately inspire the government to enforce proper regulations so that illegal pesticides are no longer available in spaza shops.

According to SAPToA, the comic book sends a deliberately confusing and dangerous message to children that legal, labelled pesticides are safe while ‘street pesticides’ cause illness and death. The reality is that all hazardous pesticides, whether labelled or not, are life-threatening and must be handled properly.

SAPToA further strenuously rejects the notion that the onus for product stewardship should fall on children or that children should be taught that it is their responsibility to monitor illicit substances in their communities to stay safe. Rather, it is the responsibility of the State and the chemical industry to regulate these substances properly. In their submission, SAPToA shares extensive research on the dangers of street pesticides and multiple warnings going back to 2008 (17 years ago), from academics and civil society to the government, regarding regulatory failures leading to death and illness, especially in children. These have been steadfastly ignored.

SAPToA had called on the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP), its partners, and Food for Mzanzi, in writing, to withdraw the comic book, setting out its reasons therefore, to no avail. It has had no option but to invoke the rights of children and the constitutional imperative that the child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child and seek relief from the South African Human Rights Commission and the Advertising Regulatory Board.

Palesa should not be bravely fighting hazardous products that have no place in our society or be brought into CropLife’s strategic efforts by way of a disingenuous marketing ploy that also serves to deflect attention from its lethal products. Terbufos is inherently unsafe. The state and CropLife and their partners have been derelict in their constitutional and legal duties to ban hazardous pesticides and ensure that illegal trade in these products does not occur. Putting the responsibility on children to protect themselves because of these failures constitutes a gross violation of children’s rights.

To download the full submission, please click here.