The Buffalo City Metro has cracked down on spaza shops which are still noncompliant, a few days after the deadline for the registration of the shops.
On Thursday morning, the city, accompanied by members of the SAPS, closed down seven shops during an unexpected visit to 16 spaza shops in Gonubie and Nomzamo township.
The shops were found to be noncompliant for allegedly selling counterfeit and expired products with no batch and registration numbers.
One spaza shop operator was arrested for trading without a licence and fined R5,000.
Four men were taken in by law enforcement for verification of their identities.
Some of the products that were found and seized during the raid included sausages, tablets, sweets, cereal, noodles, rice, dog food, and some products which were not properly packaged.
The Buffalo City Metro acting manager of coastal health services, Mbulelo Cebanto, confirmed that most spaza shops they raided were run and owned by foreign nationals.
“This is not a new programme, we were doing it until the state president announced that the owners of spaza shops must be given extended time until February 28 [to re-register].
Cebanto said their main issue was noncompliance with the city’s regulations.
“The problems that we encounter, these foreign nationals are undocumented so they are not supposed to run businesses in SA as they are not registered with Sars because of non-documentation,” he said.
“All the spaza shops [whose owners] visited our offices [to register] are not zoned properly by our city planning department to operate, if the owner of the house wants to operate as a spaza shop, they must apply,” he said.
The city’s raid was the first one after the deadline for the national re-registration of spaza shops.
Community policing forum chair and BCM coastal zone co-ordinator Soso Tozama welcomed the raids.
“We are happy that the municipality is not only working in the offices but also here among us and ensuring our safety, to avoid deaths of our children.”
The owner of the Blue House shop in Nomzamo, Abura Senbathu Abura, who is originally from Ethiopia, said he was trying to run a compliant business and urged other owners to do so as well.
“We are trying to comply in this business. I started this business in 2022 ... I will tell my brothers to also comply and sell good products as that is very good for our business, our neighbours and kids.”
Abura’s shop was found to be one of the compliant shops.
“Cleanliness is very important considering the issue of food poisoning in SA and we do not want to add to this country’s issues.
“We want to run a business that complies and meets all the requirements,” he said.
The raids are set to continue in other parts of the city.
Daily Dispatch
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