Government pushes deadline for spaza shop registration to 28 February

The government has extended the deadline for all spaza shop owners and other food handling facilities to register their businesses to 28 February 2025, after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s original 21-day deadline ended on Tuesday. 

The government has more work to do to ensure that the sector is properly regulated and adheres to health regulations, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosi Hlabisa told a media briefing on Wednesday.

“The government understands the concerns raised by some stakeholders regarding the registration deadline for spaza shops but the initial deadline was set to address the urgent need to ensure compliance with health and safety standards following the tragic incidents of food-borne illnesses,” he said.

Registration would ensure that all spaza shops met the minimum standards, regardless of their past operations, Hlabisa said, adding that any businesses that did not comply with the health regulations, or were run by foreigners who were in the country illegally, would be closed down, even if they were registered. 

Hlabisa said there were two distinct processes during registration, the first being business compliance and the second compliance with health regulations.

“This process does not depend on whether you are registered or not. If you don’t comply with the health regulations, the business is closed down immediately,” he warned.

Since 15 November, 42 915 applications have been filed to operate spaza shops and food handling outlets. Of these, 19 386 were approved while 1 041 businesses were forced to close.

Deputy national commissioner responsible for policing, Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili, said 41 deaths from food-borne illnesses had been reported this year, 38 of them children. Thirty-two cases had been opened to investigate food-borne illnesses, she added.

Mosikili said three people had been arrested and prosecuted for poisoning-related matters prior to the September to November period, and these cases were still under investigation. 

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told journalists that the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development was also investigating the origins of the organophosphate Terbufos — the pesticide identified as the cause of the deaths of six children in Naledi, Soweto. 

“Out of the five manufacturers of this organophosphate called Terbufos, which they have inspected and tested … there is the conclusion that it must be coming from outside the country, because it was not similar to the one that is manufactured by the five companies,” Motsoaledi said.

Multidisciplinary enforcement teams were conducting door-to-door compliance checks; intelligence-led operations on warehouses and supermarkets and other food handlers; closures of non-compliant premises and confiscations of non-compliant or illegal goods, Hlabisa said. Inspections of imported food items, medicines and pesticides had been intensified at ports of entry. 

Law enforcement would target tuck shops and spaza shops around schools in January, before schools are reopened, to ensure they have gone through the application process and are compliant with health regulations. 

“The rising number of deaths — especially that was concerning us most for our children — has really come down and that is what makes us pleased about the intervention and that is what is going to make us ensure that we do not go back to where we were,” Hlabisa said.