After ignoring food poisoning for years, the government suddenly gave spaza shops till mid-December — and now February — to register. Chris Barron asked Velenkosini Hlabisa, minister of co-operative governance & traditional affairs ...
Wasn’t the deadline to register hopelessly unrealistic?
No, it was necessary to have a timeline that would make people see the urgency of doing it. Children were dying and an extraordinary step had to be taken. It had to be a deadline that would send a message of urgency to everyone.
That the government is now taking food poisoning seriously?
Yes.
If registration is key to ending food poisoning why is it only being enforced now?
Better late than never.
Doesn’t such a tight deadline make it almost impossible for foreign owners in particular to comply, given how long it takes government departments to issue necessary documents?
The December 17 deadline was not meant to help foreign nationals who do not have the necessary documentation. Most will not be eligible to register even by the extended deadline of February 28. If you are a foreign national and you want to run a business in South Africa you know very well you must have a business visa, you must have evidence of R5m to invest in South Africa, or you must be a confirmed asylum seeker or refugee. Until you meet these qualifications you won’t have the necessary documents even if you ask for an extension of four months. The extension is enough for a South African who for example has lost his ID and has applied for a new one.
What will happen to spaza shops that don’t meet the deadline?
Come March 1 it will be illegal for them to operate, and they will be arrested if they are found operating.
What about the lost livelihoods if thousands of spaza shops suddenly have to close?
The spaza shops you’re referring to, who runs them? Foreign nationals. That is why we are saying this is an opportunity for people of South Africa who were once running these spaza shops to take back these businesses, which many of them rented to foreign nationals.
Will registration stop food poisoning if government officials don’t do their jobs?
Registration is a first step. Currently, we don’t know who runs which spaza shop, where. Who is the owner. Once we know that we can ensure it complies with requirements for a food-handling outlet.
Does local government have the capacity to enforce these requirements?
In the last 21 days 1,041 spaza shops have been shut down. That’s a demonstration of capacity.
Children have been dying from contaminated food from spaza shops since at least 2014, haven’t they?
That is why the government has approved the employment of 520 environmental health practitioners, and there will be a massive cleaning campaign after the festive season to ensure our environments are clean.
Where’s the capacity to keep them that way?
There are thousands of people working in the local government space who will be mobilised for this. So the capacity is there.
Doesn’t sewage running down streets and into rivers suggest the capacity is not there?
I don’t agree. There are clean towns and cities. If you have incompetence in certain municipalities that has nothing to do with capacity at a local government level generally. It does not mean South Africa cannot be a clean country.
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