Union cautions homeowners against renting space to spaza shops

[File} A multi-disciplinary operation conducting compliance inspections at spaza shops in Soweto on October 14, 2024.

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The South African Union of Spaza Shops has urged citizens to refrain from renting out their yards or garages for spaza shops.

Some residents of Mangaung in Bloemfontein have been renting out their places for decades, to foreign nationals.

They are complaining that their tenants end up controlling them.

About 127 learners from across the province received medical attention for suspected food poisoning this week.

The recent incidents have sparked disgruntled Mangaung residents to close most foreign-owned shops and some warehouses in Bloemfontein.

Twenty-nine people who were arrested for public violence following the looting of some spaza shops in Mangaung are expected to appear in court next week.

The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry provincial chairperson, Tshepo Matsaba says they had previously warned government about unregulated businesses.

“As a country we were very negligent in terms of allowing people, who have no right to be in this country to sell food to the most vulnerable members of society, who have no choice but to buy these things and because they can do as they wish. No one is keeping tabs on what they do, what they sell, how they sell it, they can do all these things and cut corners,” adds Matsaba.

“Now what we’re saying is, when we press the reset button, we must say, look all these people that are here, need to clear-out our locations. Because a society that is not in charge of its own economy, will then be subjected to this kind of nonsense that we see in our locations. So, what we’re saying is let us take our power back, take our economy back and ensure that our people are able to serve the communities they live in. There’s a reason why they’ve decided to infiltrate and enter the informal sector because it’s highly unregulated, they can do as they wish,” he explains.

Those who have been renting out their places for spaza shops say it has been a difficult journey.

“We had a very bad experience when we were renting out the store to these foreign nationals, it’s been years, they’ve been staying here but then where they’re staying, they like to stay at their own terms. They don’t want to take what we tell them as the owners of the place. So, we ended up asking them if they have papers but they would tell us there’s no law in South Africa, why would we want papers.”

“They want to pay rent according to them, they would tell us we’re not making money but yet we’re here we can see how many clients they have. So, we ended up not being in good terms and we told them no, because you don’t want listen to us, you want to control us in our space, then it’s better you leave. It’s like they are bitter when you chase them away.”