The City of Ekurhuleni is moving with speed to tighten the business regulation control systems, which include proper business registration, amid rising concern about the quality of food sold in local spaza shops.
This is to ensure that proper zoning and demarcations for businesses are done to avoid the contravention of by-laws as well as cross-contamination of foods by any airborne ailments.
The city held a business licence workshop at Kempton Park Civic Centre on Monday to ensure entrepreneurs in the catering industry knew the licensing process they needed to go through before they started operating. This was to complement their cooking skills with compliance to by-laws and reliable food quality by getting professional help from the city.
Nana Mogari, the owner of Monate Monandi Catering Projects, who was in attendance, attested to the benefits that would accrue from the knowledge they got from workshops of this nature.
“It is understandable that one cannot sell food next to a premise that runs a barbershop or a scrapyard, which is prone to attract pests and rodents, for example. Enforcement of the by-laws will ensure businesses do not emerge and mushroom from nowhere without proper municipal zoning and ultimately affect negatively on properly zoned established premises,” Mogari said.
Speaking to the entrepreneurs, local economic development officer Henry Prinsloo said the city would have more workshops to encourage more businesses to go through rezoning so they caould effectively participate in the formal economy and reap the benefits.
The business licence workshop is part of Gauteng Government’s flagship programme popularly known as Qondis’ishishini lakho, which seeks to help small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) to fix their businesses and to unlock bottlenecks for business owners to effectively participate in the mainstream economy, in line with the Gauteng Economic Development Plan.
For more information on businesses registration and licensing, interested parties may contact Prinsloo on 011 999 1484 or may email Henry.Prinsloo@ekurhuleni.gov.za
Business licences are valid for three years. However, business owners are encouraged to inform the City of Ekurhuleni of any change that may affect the registration status of the business.
