Spaza shop operators yesterday said the requirement for the rezoning of the business unit in the townships was the most onerous requirement on the list to comply for licences.
They said this would see a lot of operators dropping out of business because of the additional rates that would be levied for a commercial enterprise in residential areas.
This is as an inter-ministerial forum yesterday announced that the deadline for registration for the informal traders had been extended to February 28, 2025, to allow the over 30 000 applicants who did not meet the requirements to catch up.
In figures released yesterday, Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Velenkosini Hlabisa, said of the 42 915 applications made for registration, only 19 386 were successful, which excludes figures for the North West and Western Cape as they have not been tallied.
Sibusiso Ngcobo, deputy secretary general and head of business development at the South African Spaza Shop and Tuckshops Association (SASTA), said the extension of the deadline was welcome.
“The rezoning of the properties is the most complicated requirement and will be difficult to apply. Rezoning will attract higher municipal rates, along with electricity and water bills,” Ngcobo said.
“Most people do not have those accounts. It is a requirement people will not meet. Many spaza shops will fall by the wayside. We are looking at how we can go around it in the engagements we have with government agencies.”
Ngcobo said SASTA was advocating for ongoing training to the operators on the implications of the registration, understanding of the regulations, compliance with labour and tax laws, and the occupational health provisions.
“We have not yet heard how the R500 million fund’s disbursements and procedures [function], we are hoping to be informed. Our point now is that the government must provide ongoing training in the various aspects of small business development so people are able to comply with requirements,” Ngcobo said.
Other requirements for the registration, prior to the issuing of a trading licence, pertain to building plans and safety features, including fire extinguishers as well as adequate food safety processes.
Meanwhile, Hlabisa said about 550 spaza shops out of 1 042 in Gauteng qualified for registration while 6 730 applied in the Eastern Cape, with 1 783 approved.
The Kwazulu Natal province had 7 180 applicants and only 4 200 made it, Mpumalanga had 9 283 applicants and 7 263 qualified, while the Free State saw 879 applicants get approval from a pool of 5 016.
“The 21 day period was to cap the crises of increasing deaths of children,” Hlabisa said.
“There are people in queues who are still trying to apply and because the exercise is not intended to exclude small business people, we recommended that the deadline be extended to the end of February because not much is likely to happen between now and mid January with the festive season.”
In a statement, the inter-ministerial team said operators who have registered their businesses and have duly received their acknowledgement of registration still needed to undertake a further process to obtain their trading licenses.
“For this process, Environmental Health Practitioners and other regulatory authorities will still inspect owners of registered food-related trading businesses to ensure that their businesses are eligible to trade,” it said.
It emphasised that there were two processes in focus. Firstly, business compliance where spaza shops or any food handling business are registered. Secondly, the process is compliance with health regulations, which does not depend on whether an operator is registered or not.
“If you don’t comply with the health regulations the business is closed down immediately. Hence 1 041 spaza shops have already been closed,” it said.
The team said the appointment of 15 health experts to the Ministerial Advisory Committee has now been finalised and would develop medium-to-long-term prevention measures to curb the incidence of foodborne illnesses in the country.
BUSINESS REPORT