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Spaza shop owner sits inside his shop in Nkaneng township, Marikana’s informal settlement.
Limpopo’s Economic Development Department says the spaza shop owners experiencing challenges with registration levies at municipalities or traditional authorities should contact the department.
This follows complaints by some spaza shop owners in the Makhado municipal area in Louis Trichardt who have failed to register their businesses.
They attribute the failure to fees charged by some traditional leaders for recommendation letters.
The House of Traditional Leaders is yet to comment on the matter.
“If there is a standard price that is being charged, maybe a particular municipality is charging five times that particular amount, then the people registering feel aggrieved, let them bring that matter to us. What we can say is we hear these things sometimes on social media or in passing, but nobody really ever stands up and brings it to us or even in writing and we are calling on our people to bring these issues to us so that we can be able to step in and assist them,” says Department Spokesperson, Zaid Kalla.
VIDEO | Some spaza shop owners have expressed frustration with the process:
A spaza shop owner at Tshiozwi village outside Louis Trichardt, David Musiame, says he was unable to pay the fee at the traditional authority offices.
“I hardly survive from the amount that my spaza shop makes a day and the R8,000 that the traditional leader wants I cannot afford it, and I do not even make that a month, or in a year,” saysa Musiame.
