Spaza shop owners scramble to meet re-registration deadline

The owners of spaza shops and other food handling facilities have said the lack of information around the registration of their businesses has led to delays, as they rushed to meet Tuesday’s deadline set by President Cyril Ramaphosa after the deaths of several children who ate contaminated items.

Scores of people were waiting in queues at the Jabulani Civic Centre in Soweto on Tuesday morning — the last day for them to register their businesses with the municipality as ordered by Ramaphosa on 15 November to ensure they comply with food safety regulations.

Salomendaba Mofokeng, who has been running a spaza shop in the area for 24 years, told the Mail & Guardian that she had gone to the municipal offices a few times but was told each time that she didn’t have the right supporting documents. 

“I came on Friday, with all the documents, because they’ve checked everything. I’m left with only one certificate that I need to re-apply for. It’s only one certificate but they are telling me I need to follow the queue again,” the frustrated Mofokeng said.

Other women who run food businesses in the area also lamented the lack of information from officials.

“It’s not even fair because the security guards don’t tell you that, when you come back, you must bring one, two, three, four. They tell you you must bring an ID only, and now I find out I must bring other documents, and I don’t have all those things,” said one woman, who asked not to be named, asking for an extension of the registration deadline.

“We are expected to fail already, because we are going to leave this place — and it’s tiring,” another woman said.  

Some of the documents required when submitting an application for a food business include the physical and postal address; a description of the goods or services that the business will sell or provide to the community; the citizenship status of the applicant and the passport number, a permit or valid visa for foreigners. 

The applicant must also provide an affidavit stating that they do not sell illegal goods and that their business will operate according to the applicable norms and standards. 

Mofokeng was waiting in another queue nearly two hours later to submit her certificate but she said she would leave if she could not finalise her paperwork on Tuesday.

“If today I don’t come right, I am going to keep all my papers and I will work in my shop. If they come, I will tell them that I took the initiative to come [re-register],” she said.

“All those days when the president said we must do this, I’ve tried. I ran up and down. I don’t even have money now. We closed the shop; we are not operating. We are trying to fix this. There is no money coming in but there is money going out.”

The Gauteng provincial government said in a briefing last week that, as of 10 December, 13 616 spaza shops had been issued with registration forms. Of these, 1 916 forms were returned and 2 605 applications were submitted by non-South African spaza shop owners. About 541 spaza shops were closed for non-compliance.

The provincial government said businesses that missed the registration deadline would be closed down. 

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosi Hlabisa is expected to provide an update on the re-registeration of businesses on Wednesday, his spokesperson said.