Long queues have formed at the Jabulani Civic Centre in Soweto, as today is the closing date set by the government for small business owners to comply with municipal by-laws for running a small business.
The registration process is the government’s effort to stop recent foodborne illnesses and deaths, caused by food allegedly bought at spaza shops.
Chairperson of the Gauteng Spaza shop and Landlord Forum, Veli Khumalo, says they are requesting a three-month extension to allow all spaza shops to register.
“Why I say that is that this process needs hard work. Firstly most of the people don’t have title deeds, they must go to housing in town, and they don’t have money to get title deeds. Others are staying in RDP houses, they don’t have title deeds. Because to fill this consent form you must have a title deed.”
The registration in Soweto has been extended to Wednesday after the Centre ran out of the application forms.
Spaza Shops Registration – Extension for those at Jabulani Civic Centre in Soweto as forms run out
Advocacy group – Black Entrepreneurs Alliance (BEA) has questioned the compliance of spaza shop owners, who have successfully reapplied for permits to trade in townships.
The Alliance’s CEO Refilwe Monageng says, “More people have complied and got it right- it’s seemingly foreigners. Now, the question is, if foreigners comply- there’s a form, the affidavit you must fill out in consultation with interested and affected parties. In that form, you must call your neighbours, and the people that you live within the same yard- they must fill out an affidavit and give you consent, that you’re opening up a spaza shop. For example, people in Soweto, and including our members, and the ones in Eldorado Park, and Westbury- I can tell you now for a fact, they’ve said they’ve never been in a community meeting where foreign-owned businessmen have called them to come and sign, and request consent for them to operate those shops.”
In Bloemfontein, spaza shop owners formed snaking queues outside municipal offices before opening time. Some say they’ve had to come back more than twice.
There’s panic among some over whether they will complete their applications. A language barrier has been raised as one of the hurdles for foreign nationals.
They have called for the period to be extended.
Mpumalanga
Over 7 000 spaza shop owners have applied to register their business in the Mpumalanga province. Mbombela Municipality has the highest number with over 2 000 applications.
And in Nkomazi municipality authorities are concerned as none of the applicants qualify to run businesses. The spaza shop owners don’t have proper documentation to register their businesses.
Spaza shop owners are waiting to register with some returning their applications and hoping their documents are in order to continue running their shops or face closure.
“I am happy about the licence, and I paid for the license already,” says one businessman. “I’ve been here for 25 years. Everything is right because, we want to be here for the good business, and we don’t want anything wrong which brief the community and we want to be good businessmen.”
“It is very important for us. We have to do business, with all the requirements as the country has said. We have to follow the rules and the law as well. We are really grateful to the South African government,” adds another one.
Spaza shop owners are required to register their businesses and comply with the health and safety standards.
Nkomazi Municipality has received over 550 applications, mostly from foreign nationals. And the applications don’t meet the requirements.
Nkomazi Municipality’s Cyril Riphinga explains, “Of all the 555 applicants, no one qualifies to get a license because they don’t meet the requirements. The most frustrating thing is the non-South Africans, the majority of them don’t have proper documentation to run businesses within the municipality. Some came here on study permits and suddenly they were doing business. And we need proof that you came here to do business, so they failed to give us that proof. We did our routine checks within the municipality and those selling counterfeit, some selling tin stuff that is already expired.”
Department of Economic Development and Tourism’s Brenda Mabaso says, “We have about 7 067 from the three districts… the stats change hourly as people wait until the last day. We are still going to do some audit and verification. And once the verification process is complete, the trading license can be issued.”
