By Simon Nare
Minister in The Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says South Africans must make a call on the ownership of spaza shops by foreigners that she accuses of selling poisonous food that claims the lives of innocent children.
Ntshavheni said the government had introduced a law that was going to regulate the registration of spaza shops, but it was South Africans who took the government to court to challenge the move and won.
The minister was responding to questions during the media briefing on the outcomes of a Cabinet meeting amid reports of more food poisonings in Gauteng related to spaza shops.
.She said had that law been implemented, it would have prevented foreigners from owning spaza shops because they would have to fork out R5 million to invest in a business.
“All of us listening to me now know that it doesn’t cost R5 million or more than R5 million to open a spaza shop.
“You can open a spaza shop with as little as R1000. Sometimes people open spaza shops with as little as R400 or R350 from the grants. So as South Africans, we must take a decision,” she said.
The minister said South Africans also has a choice not to buy from these shops, some of whom she said were selling expired goods while others were manufacturing fake goods from the back of their shops.
She added that South Africans must not support businesses that were not registered.
“We are the ones who buy at these spaza shops. If we want to make sure that these spaza shops that are illegal, that are selling products that are not safe for our children because some of them are fake, but what is worse is that the consumption products, some of them are made at the backyards of those spaza shops.
“We must take a decision as a society that we are not buying at the spaza shops,” she said.
Ntshavheni said when she was minister of small business and development, she had started the drive to ensure that spaza shops were registered in the municipalities that they operated in.
She said she had made sure that municipalities relaxed regulations for registration of spaza shops and made it free for South Africans to register in municipalities that had exorbitant fees.
“So, as South Africans, we can’t have our cake and eat it. We must decide what’s in our best interest. And I’m sure the lives of our children and our own lives are more important than buying cheaper fake products.
“So, we must take a decision as a society that we’re not going to buy from these spaza shops. And we know them. I don’t have to speak here and then because of all sorts of names. We know them. They’re in our society,” she said.
On calls that illegal immigrants must be sent back to their respective countries, Ntshavheni said the Home Affairs Department and other relevant departments had embarked on inspection drives to ensure that laws were complied with.
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