The 21-day deadline for owners of spaza shops operating across South Africa to register their business is looming, but some have voiced concerns that they will not have completed the stringent process.
Spaza shop owners have until Friday to comply with the law, in a move undertaken by government following the widespread deaths from food-borne diseases.
The people who died, majority of them being children, had allegedly consumed food from the spaza shops that have mushroomed especially across townships in South Africa.
In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrik, Dr Daniel Fikreyesus from an organisation ANGGA, representing foreign spaza shop owners, requested President Cyril Ramaphosa to extend the deadline by six months.
“Since the day we heard this news, we have been trying to fulfil all the documents required. We have been trying to get all the documents. As you know, it is a very good move from the president and the government of South Africa. We really embrace the programme.
“There have been lots of things that are so hard for us to get, especially the documents required. Most of them are hard to find. The time limit is so short, 21 days to get something that you have never had. The business has to be there, the kids have to get the bread, mums need to get those things they get from the shops,” said Fikreyesus.
He said while running the businesses, the shop owners are also grappling to fulfil the new requirements from the government.
Registering the business, according to the association, would give their members the confidence to trade.
“We are not overlooking the thing because this is about the law, this is about health and this also gives us further opportunities from the government. However, the time ticked from the moment the president us to do so,” he said.
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According to the association, majority of the spaza shop operators are struggling to renewe their asylum-seeker permits and the situation has become “a catch 22”.
“The government of South Africa is requiring us to present a document called an asylum-seeker (permit). This document has not been granted since 2018. Those who have the documents have been trying to renew but it is stuck since the Covid-19 issue. There are backlogs at the Department of Home Affairs which everyone knows,” he said.
Last month, IOL reported that spaza shop owners in Naledi, Soweto have voiced frustration with Ramaphosa’s 21-day deadline for registering their tuck shops, and were demanding an extension of four months amid the scourge of food poisoning cases.
This follows a surge in food-borne illness that has hit the country and claimed the lives of more than 22 children.
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