The City of Johannesburg’s Department of Economic Development has flagged major compliance challenges, even as it empowers nearly 4,000 spaza shop owners through the recently launched Spaza Shop Fund.

To date, 3,931 applications have been recorded, but many are incomplete, invalid, or include forged documents. This was revealed during a training session at the Finetown Multipurpose Centre in Ennerdale, facilitated by Lutzanetix in partnership with the City this week.

The session forms part of a project funded by the Wholesale & Retail SETA, aimed at training 500 spaza shop owners in Ennerdale and Orange Farm on food safety and hygiene. Following a presidential proclamation, spaza shop owners were required to register their businesses between November and the end of February.

Benji Seitlhamo, Acting Director: Economic Development Facilitation in the Department of Economic Development, said that despite the efforts and systems in place to capture these applications, compliance remains significantly low.

“Specifically in Region G, the highest number of applications (1,774) was received, but only 21 had both the necessary health and fire certificates, indicating widespread non-compliance with City regulations,” he said.

Seitlhamo highlighted issues such as operating illegally, submission of incomplete documents, and fraudulent certificates, which pose challenges to the city’s enforcement and regulatory framework.

Simon Ndukwana, CEO of Lutzanetix, said it is looking forward to spaza shops that are cleaner and safer. “We also envisage synergy with the private sector through the partnership that Lutzanetix has with MTN and Standard Bank to help the spaza shops with telecom network access, infrastructure funding, and financial literacy on business management.”

Written by Zingiswa Mndayi