Many spaza shop owners in Gauteng still unregistered: Maile

Gauteng Finance and Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile says they’ve issued over 25 000 registration forms to spaza shop owners and of that number, more than 10 000 have submitted the forms.

Maile was giving a progress report in Johannesburg on the registration of spaza shops and food-handling outlets across Gauteng.

A key issue that was previously noted related to challenges that spaza shop owners faced in terms of receiving certain approvals from local municipalities.

Progress in this regard is continuing. An example of this can be gleaned in the City of Ekurhuleni where, as of today, 23…

— Lebogang Maile (@LebogangMaile1) December 19, 2024

The deadline for registration has been extended to the end of February next year.

This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement last month that all spaza shops must be registered with their respective municipalities within 21 days and yesterday was the deadline.

Ramaphosa’s announcement came amid a rising number of child deaths linked to food-borne illnesses caused by items purchased from spaza shops.

Maile says there are still many others who have not responded to the call to register.

“Because they think they will not be caught or they just don’t qualify, they are doing illegal things. And that is why it is importatnt that we do outreach programmes so (that) we go out to verify and once we have this information, (we will) be able to ensure that we get as much information as possible.”

VIDEO | There are more than 10 000 applications to register in Gauteng: Maile