South Africa was staggered by the revelation that polony and other cold meats appear to be the sources of the deadly listeriosis outbreak that has so far killed 181 people, 78 of whom were babies.
I just want to eat a piece of polony.
As a result, Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi has urged consumers to rid their fridges of any cold meats, after an Enterprise Foods factory was identified as the source of the bacteria.
The polony purge is hitting some die-hard lovers of the processed meat hard.
One such example is this man, who posted a video of how heartsore he is.
In the video [in Afrikaans] he says, "Good morning, everyone. I am sitting this morning here... very heartsore. It's a nice rainy day. I don't know what to say... I... I just... (**cue 'tears'**) I just want to eat a piece of polony. That's all! Just a little piece!"
It seems "Satafrika" can only cope with the sorely fely absence through a flood of polony jokes on Twitter: