Nearly 200,000 spaza shops have been visited and 1,000 spaza shops and warehouses have been closed since President Ramaphosa announced that spaza shops must be registered within 21 days.
The government has made it mandatory for all spaza shops and food-handling businesses to register with their local municipalities by the 13th of December 2024.
Ramaphosa in his yearly speech to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament on Thursday, said most shops that were visited were in rural areas and townships.
“Since we announced a range of measures two weeks ago, multi-disciplinary teams have been conducting inspections of spaza shops across the country.” Ramaphosa said.
“Nearly 200 000 spaza shops have been visited. More than 1 000 spaza shops, supermarkets and warehouses have been closed down. Large quantities of goods have been confiscated and numerous fines have been issued for violations of by-laws,”
“The tragic deaths of a number of children after eating food from some of these outlets has required urgent and decisive action to prevent the contamination of food by harmful substances, particularly pesticides that are being sold unlawfully,” the President said.
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