A grandmother in Ndola has sued Parmalat Zambia Limited for selling her contaminated margarine from a Shoprite outlet.Mrs Masuwa of Itawa sued Parmalat Zambia Limited and claimed for damages and negligence resulting from gastro-enteritis(vomiting and diarrhoea) suffered by her two grand children aged 7 and 10 after they consumed contaminated margarine from Parmalat.
According to the writ of summons submitted in Ndola High Court by her lawyer Douglas Mupeta from D.B Mupeta and company, the complainant suffered parental trauma and incurred losses.
The Complaint on January 3, this year, bought among others things an unlabeled 250 grammes of butter from Shoprite shelves.
The next morning, the plaintiff left for the farm leaving her two grand children who had not yet taken their breakfast under the care of the house maid.
Before long,she received disturbing phone call that her two grand children were vomiting and one was seriously sick after consuming the margarine spread on bread.
The children were then taken to the clinic for treatment and were given medicine. The plaintiff then took the receipt and butter to Ndola City Council Health Department and to the Shoprite Manager. The margarine did not clearly show the manufacturing and expiry dates,the claim read.
A random check on the shelves was carried out and it revealed that several other 250 and 500 grammes of margarine tablets were contaminated.
About 10 tablets of the same product were confiscated and the rest was removed from the shelves.It was discovered that the bad products which were greenish and black in appearance came from Parmalat, a manufacturer of dairy products.
A week later Parmalat was charged with an offence under the Food and Drug Act and admitted and paid K2, 500 as admission of guilt.
Ms Masuwa is demanding for compensation because she has suffered damages of trauma, sickness and costs.
Way to go grand mum!
Shoprite Ndola should be sued too as second defendant. They too have an obligation to protect their customers
Thanks Mrs Masuwa! This is an excellent demonstration of your knowledge and understanding of Consumer Rights. We really need to up our game in this regard coz most shops could be selling us stuff that is contaminated/condemned in their countries. Just two weeks ago control laboratories in South Africa discovered that cleaning products and disinfectants Dettol & Domestos chemically defective and therefore not fit for the shelf. The products were therefore recalled from all stores/outlets in South Africa – leaving me to wonder:
1. Whether these products would be destroyed or just redirected to other unsuspecting international consumers.
2. How a poor customer in Zambezi or Shang’ombo would know about such a product recall
Good action taken, and well done to the city authorities for a quick check on the product.
Pity no one has come forward to claim they are sick after eating matumbo/hoofs which are/have been deliberately being contaminated with dreaded poisonous chemicals only suited for embalming dead bodies, and supplied with impunity by Zambeef and now Pamalat.
That’s the way to go grandma. Indeed if we have to survive as a Nation in this ‘fast track’ modern age, we have to be on the look-out 24/7. Making quick bucks at the expense of poor and ignorant masses by these unscrupulous fly-by night investors, is not only criminal, its downright murder…
Dr Kasonde please don’t just yap,yap Politics, we want to understand why Zambeef and other companies in the food supply chain are ‘killing’ us slowly. We want quick action not just words before these enemies change the subject matter.
what about the issue of zambeef, is it going to die in the press not in the courts?
We all enjoy zambeef steak, I even make my own biltong- have a life that’s politics. No one died of horse meat in Europe !
ZAMBEEF PRODUCTS ARE NOT DANGEROUS AND YOU HAVE BEEN RAISED ON THEM AS WELL AS ALL YOUR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS!!
@sad zambian atleast your relatives wont find it difficult or expensive to embalm you when you finally kick the bucket because zambeef has already embalmed you. ni cost saving measure mwandi.
These companies should be made to pay for their deeds. They want to profit even on rotten products on the expense of other pipo’s health
Educated grandma, maybe thats why my child has had a similar disease recently… mwanya ba Parmalat na shoprite wenu…
Finally a Zambian who knows her rights as a consumer. I hope she wins big.
Way to go Granny.
Mama, let them not give you less than 100,000 rebased.
Margarine is very unhealthy food even when it is not contaminated. Please dont feed your children grease!
Correct margarine is bad to health of the body, use kotapela, (avocado) or plain brown bread.
The problem may not even be with Parmalat but Shoprite, because they did not notice that the butter had gone bad. The grandma should equally sue Shoprite.
Yessssss! Good for you grandma.
Why is shoprite not included in the suit? It was the responsibility of Shoprite to ensure everything they are sellin is not expired. Parmalat supplied a good product but it expired while on the shelves of Shoprite. Whose duty is it to remove expired products. In this case SHOPRITE is the company to sue and not Parmalat.
For those of you saying Shoprite should be sued and not Parmalat note that the claim is that the margarine who contaminated and not expired. Contamination for sealed product is likely to take place at source whereas issue of contamination would more likely be the fault of Shoprite
Ba Lusaka Times ka consistency ka la fwaika mu journalism. Why the interchange between butter and margarine. These are two different spreads and Parmalat never makes margarine. They make butter from milk get your facts right and be consistent in your spelling and writing of facts.
iwe chi WANU NGWEE why use all this space on this blog page, are u PF that wants to get everything in this country? Ok this granmda aya SANA let her take that margarine and we see if she will vomit and sheet, if u are poor dont claim money by false pretext
Uyu mbuya tewakupenenako worst of all nga waupa umwana wakwe. Naine wine am about to sue my inlaws for gongaling me the wife.