Welcome boost for spaza shop owners

Spaza shop owners who might have felt the Covid-19 lockdown had left them high and dry, can breathe a sigh of relief after government on Tuesday announced its new “dedicated spaza shop support scheme”.

This after President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said he was “particularly concerned about the impact of the lockdown on the self-employed and on informal businesses” and that additional measures were in the process of being developed to provide relief in this regard.

During an update from the Covid-19 national command council, Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said she and her teams were also working on support packages for hawkers and some categories of self-employed people operating in the informal sector. The minister said these packages were expected to be announced on Thursday.

Ntshavheni said the opening date for applications for the new dedicated spaza shop support scheme would likely also be announced on Thursday.

In the meantime, she said it would provide spaza shop owners with “the opportunity for networking or purchasing power or bulk buying”.

“We are coordinating that bulk buying through selected wholesalers and they will have to buy from a pre-approved basket of goods,” she explained.

The new scheme also provided spaza shop owners with access to seed capital and credit facilities.

“Some of our spaza shops are not able to access money to buy stock and so we are availing seed capital to assist,” the minister said, “It will be followed by a credit facility to enable them to continue to buy even beyond this situation”.

In addition, she said, business management support – in the form of bookkeeping, customer service, inventory management, occupational health and safety skills and information – would be provided; as would access to “basic business tools, such as instant payment machines and speed point machines”.

Ntshavheni said government would facilitate the licensing of spaza shops that were currently unlicensed, but that this had to be done in accordance with the law.

“Spaza shops must hold permits to trade and those currently operating illegally can go to their nearest municipality to apply,” she said.

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu also addressed the nation during yesterday’s update. She highlighted some of the challenges her department had faced with the roll out of Sassa grant payments on Monday – including long queues and non-compliance with social distancing protocols – but she said that by yesterday, the situation had improved.

Meanwhile, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, who also spoke yesterday, said his department had been receiving complaints about employees being forced to take unpaid leave over the lockdown

“Employers can negotiate with employees to take leave at any time they deem fit,” he said. “However this is a unique situation which requires all of us to act in a manner that promotes social solidarity.”

He also said there was evidence of some employers having obtained fraudulent certificates declaring that they can continue to operate as essential services during this time.

“At this stage, we appeal to them to do the right thing,” he said. “If the situation persists we will start to name and shame individual companies and branches.”

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