Since no new cases have been reported for three months, he’s announced the end of the world’s worst listeria outbreak that killed 216 people

South African health authorities have identified a meat processing facility in the northern city of Polokwane as the source of the listeria outbreak last year.

However the cause of the bacteria, that killed 216 and sickened more than a thousand people  is still unknown

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says efforts to find the cause and to stop the outbreak of any other disease will continue even after the all-clear has been sounded.

Motsoaledi says authorities  will strengthen the system to prevent  and detect listeriosis outbreaks, including ongoing legislative reform regarding food safety.

He says about 900 health practitioners have been taken for training to be educated on the listeriosis bacteria , which found in unpasteurized milk and ready-to-eat or refrigerated foods and  attacks the central nervous system.

The Polokokwane operation identified as the source of the outbreak remains closed.

Government expects a full report from the owners by next month.

Motsoaledi department faces opposition criticism for not responding quickly enough to the listeria outbreak .

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Foreigners on the outskirts of the provincial capital Polokwane in Limpopo have abandoned their shops after protesting villagers threatened to burn them alive and then looted them.

Violence erupted in the Ga-Sekgopo area after a foreign shop owner was found in possession of a mobile phone belonging to a local man who was killed three weeks ago.

Villagers demanded answers on how the shop owner got the man’s phone.

Police said one of the alleged killers took the phone to the foreigner. They didn’t know whether it was sold to him or was brought there to be fixed.

Violent protests erupted on Sunday with villagers sending all the foreigners packing and pushing them out of 11 villages in Sekgopo.

One of the shop owners says he’s lost his stock and won’t regain the profit lost during the looting.

Other owners are worried that they’re being made to pay for the sins of their fellow foreign nationals.

Police spokesperson Moatshe Ngoepe says police are patrolling the area.

In Soweto residents are expressing frustration at the effects of having threatened foreign shop owners evacuated after xenophobic attacks last month.

They say they have to walk further to do their shopping and prices in local stores are higher than the foreign owners were charging.

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