Spaza shops have been given a little more time to register their businesses, with the deadline extended to Tuesday.
During a council meeting on Thursday, public health political head Thsonono Buyeye told councillors that co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa had clarified that the deadline for registration was now December 17.
In a statement, Hlabisa said the counting of 21 days started on Monday November 18, and it needed to be taken into account that municipal offices were closed on weekends and public holidays.
“On the issue of the deadline, the minister of Cogta was on television this [Thursday] morning saying the deadline has been extended to Tuesday,” Buyeye said.
“I just want to clarify that the deadline is not tomorrow [Friday].”
In November, President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the registration of spaza shops in response to the crisis of foodborne illnesses that claimed the lives of more than 23 children.
More than 800 people have fallen ill from suspected food poisoning across SA in the past three months, allegedly after ingesting food from spaza shops.
The city identified a total 1,627 spaza shops across the metro and of those, only 361 had submitted applications to register their businesses by Tuesday.
Less than 30 that came forward to apply for compliance certificates had passed the test to be declared compliant.
EFF councillor Siyabulela Mosi said as the metro checked on compliance, it was also important to look at the conditions workers were subjected to.
GOOD councillor Lawrence Troon asked the municipality to extend its deadline, saying three weeks was not enough time.
“By any person’s standards, the three weeks given to them to comply was very short.
“We call upon the mayor and this council to please extend the three weeks because it is necessary for this municipality to know how many spaza shops we have.
“I hear [the number] 1,600, but there are many more of these shops. If all of them comply, we’d have an idea of how many there actually are.”
EFF councillor Ndumiso Qwazi said he appreciated the 361 spaza shop owners who had come forward to date.
“Also, as the EFF, we can’t end it with spaza shops but we need to take it further,” Qwazi said. “If you go to [some supermarkets], I can tell you, there’s rotten food there.
“We must move away from the narrative that it’s our African brothers that are supplying us with rotten food in the township.
"[Others] are guilty too. As a metro, we must take this further.”
HeraldLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.