Despite disruptions in Jabulani, Soweto Gauteng province appears to have taken the lead in the registration of Spaza Shops as directed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday.
Ramaphosa announced a series of measures in response to rising deaths caused by contaminated food purchased from Spaza Shops. There’s been more than 800 incidents of food poisoning reported in 2024 alone with at least 23 children having been confirmed dead as a result of such contamination.
On Tuesday Gauteng finance MEC Lebogang Maile led a provincial government delegation in a meeting with the province’s 11 municipalities to agree on how registration is to be done.
“Before today people didn’t know where to go but after today’s meeting it is clear on what needs to happen. In fact we are the only province that has started and’s all our 11 municipalities were there, not a single apology,” said Maile while briefing the media after the meeting in Johannesburg.
Below are the requirements set out by the government. There are various requirements that need to be met to ensure the successful registration of spaza shops.
These included a correctly filed application form that provides personal and business details; a certified and valid copy of a South African identity document; proof of residence; business registration with the CIPC; proof of ownership or permission to utilise business premises; zoning certificate and consent use or special consent use or comment from municipal City Planning; certificate of acceptability or comment from Environmental Health supporting the application; and the municipality-determined payment before a business license may be issued.
The major concern with the process is that most Spaza Shop sector is dominated by foreign nationals some of whom are in the country illegally.
On Tuesday pressure group Operation Dudula blocked officials from registering Spaza Shops in Jabulani, Soweto and has been distributing pamphlets urging communities to join in on its programme of preventing the registration of foreign owned spaza shops.
Maile said foreign nationals have a set of requirements they have to meet in order to qualify to operate spaza shops which includes business visas issued by the Home Affairs Department as well as that they invest no less than R5 million.
There’s already reports of South Africans registering businesses on behalf of illegal immigrants and Maile warned against the practice stating its illegality.
“Various inspections by the provincial and local governments have unearthed the practice of South African citizens registering spaza shops on behalf of foreign nationals who are not compliant with the laws of the country. This fragrant disregard for the law is unacceptable as it makes it difficult for municipalities to compile valid data on enterprises in townships, which in turn makes the work of monitoring their compliance difficult. It could also potentially create legal challenges for the said South Africans where issues of negligence resulting in hospitalisations and deaths arise. Furthermore, this action poses a serious national security challenge to South Africans as the absence of documentation of foreign nationals means they do not exist in the system,” he said.
Some of the Spaza Shop operators have complained that the 21 days deadline set by Ramaphosa was not enough but Maile said the important thing was for would be owners to have submitted application forms within the provided 21 days.
Maile’s department has already listed sites people can visit to register.