Gauteng Finance and Economic Development MEC Lebogang Maile said more than 10 000 applications for business licences have been submitted at municipalities across the province. Maile briefed the media today about the progress on spaza shop registration, a day after the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Velenkosi Hlabisa announced yesterday that the government has extended the spaza shop registration deadline to February 2025.

GIVE IT TIME 

Maile confirmed that over 25 000 registration forms were issued to spaza shop owners and of that number, more than 10 000 have submitted the forms. Yesterday was the last of the 21 days set by President Cyril Ramaphosa granting all spaza shop owners time to register with their respective municipalities following the alarming number of child deaths linked to food-borne illnesses caused by items purchased from spaza shops. Maile expressed concern over those who have not heeded the call to register thinking they won't get caught. "Because they think they will not be caught or they just don't qualify, they are doing illegal things. And that is why we must 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."

LONG WAY TO GO

Hlabisa explained that those who have registered their businesses and have received their acknowledgment of registration still need to undertake a further process to obtain their trading licenses. He said 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. "Notwithstanding the holiday scaling down of operations, municipalities must still reserve capacity to assist those who will be registering. We also urge business owners to continue with their registration process within their respective municipalities and not wait until the next registration deadline." He added: We need to explain that we are dealing with two distinct processes. The first process is business compliance where you need to register the spaza shops or any food handling business. The second process is compliance with health regulations. This process does not depend on whether you are registered or not. If you don't comply with the health regulations the business is closed down immediately. Hence 1041 spaza shops have already been closed."