Durban spaza shop owners in a race to register their businesses

The Ethekwini municipality in KwaZulu-Natal is on a campaign to ensure compliance of the spaza shop industry which contributes around R55 billion to the Metro’s GDP.

The industry employs more than 260 000 people.

As the deadline for all spaza shop owners to register their businesses looms, the municipality held a registration blitz in Umlazi, south of Durban.

The municipality held a registration blitz in Umlazi in the south of the city. The city says it has so far registered over 2 500 spaza shops out of the over 4 500 in its database.

Senzeni Mkhize, owner of the Senzeni tuck shop in Umlazi south of Durban, says he is concerned that his business is on the verge of closing down because he has been ordered to break down the illegally built structure.

“After the government called us to have licenses I found myself in a problem because the structure is built in bricks and concrete and the time given I can remove my stock and put it in a container if they can give us more time.”

eThekwini registers 2 500 spaza shops

Residents have been warned not to register businesses on behalf of foreign nationals.

eThekwini municipality mayor, Cyril Xaba says, “People have been selling from all sorts of structures including literal shacks and we said NO. If you operate in a place that is not suitable to sell, you know food to sell grocery, we’re not going to grant you a license and you’ll be forced to shut down.

“And there are those who build, you know, formal structures but not on properties, that are theirs. So we cannot license someone who has built a structure on another person’s property, because that would be a violation of the law. For a structure that is removable like a container we understand that we can grant you permission to go forth, but for a permanent structure, sorry,” Xaba adds.

Spaza shops | Registration deadline approaches