With over one thousand non-compliant spaza shops, factories and warehouses being forced to shut their doors, the City of Tshwane seeks to strengthen its approach to this crisis by approving a draft informal trading and township economy bylaw for public consultation.
It is less than two weeks until the registration deadline and many spaza shop owners are struggling to meet registration requirements in the City of Tshwane .
All the paperwork etc., including the foreign nationals that are operating, they dont have the required documentation to present to us, including the documentation to be in the city," says Tshwane Executive Mayor Nasiphi Moya.
Moya says to reinforce compliance , a new by-law has been drafted, which the city claims, will enforce health and safety standards. But importantly the registration for locally owned spaza shops will be prioritised over those that are foreign owned.
"In that by-law obviously, we used as an opportunity, not only to ensure that businesses in the City of Tshwane are compliant, but they must make sure that they protect public health. But we also use it as an opportunity to say can we use the by-law to reserve certain sectors such as spaza shop for locals, that is on the bylaw that is out for public participation.
