Foreign-owned spaza shops will be the last to get registered, says CoJ

Johannesburg - The City of Johannesburg says foreign-owned spaza shops will be the last to get registered following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s instruction to bring order to the sector. 

On Monday, members of the civic group Operation Dudula picketed at the Jabulani municipal offices, preventing foreigners from registering their shops. 

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To address the crisis of food contamination from spaza shops, the government has instructed all shop owners to register their businesses with their respective municipalities. 

However, Operation Dudula members say foreign nationals should be excluded.

Johannesburg municipality spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the city won't be registering foreign-owned spaza shops at this stage: 

"On Friday we are going to have a big operation where we will have other spheres of government, your immigration in terms of Home Affairs and others to go into Dobsonville and assist us with dealing with issues of foreign nationals," said Modingoane.

Modingoane also added that the city will also be inspecting bylaw compliance.

"In some areas there are no town plans. There are a lot of by-laws that have been infringed so we want to help them to normalise that so they can get the occupancy certificate and then they can operate safely," said Modingoane.