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Small business minister Stella Ndabeni announces R500m in spaza shop support

Small business minister Stella Ndabeni announces R500m in spaza shop support
Long queues for spaza shop registrations on 17 December 2024 at the Revenue Customer Service Centre in Soweto. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)
Suné Payne
By Suné Payne
3 Mar 2025
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Registration for spaza shops has closed, and work is now under way to collate this information, says minister of small business development.

R500-million and more support is among initiatives announced by Minister of Small Business Development Stella Ndabeni (formerly Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams) after the closure of the registration period for spaza shops. 

Ndabeni briefed journalists on Sunday, 2 March on the spaza shop registration. 

All spaza shops in the country had to be registered by 28 February 2025 after the deaths of children last year were suspected to be related to food items bought at spaza shops. 

spaza queues People queue for spaza shop registrations on 17 December 2024 at the Revenue Customer Service Centre in Soweto. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)



As Daily Maverick reported in November 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 21-day period for the re-registration of all spaza shops in South Africa. This came about after 890 reported incidents across all provinces.

In October 2024, it was revealed that six children in Naledi, Soweto, died after ingesting the highly toxic organophosphate Terbufos, which some spaza shops were allegedly selling.

Read more: Banned insecticide found in spazas as inspectors home in on what killed 6 kids

Read more: Tragic deaths of six Soweto children linked to lethal organophosphate poisoning – investigation ongoing

Initially, the deadline for registration was mid-December, but this was extended to 28 February 2025. 

Read more: Spaza shop registration extended — but owners still worried about February deadline 

In Sunday’s briefing, Ndabeni said it was exactly 107 days since the initial announcement of spaza shop registration. She said she was there to report on the progress of business registration and interventions by the department “as part of assisting small businesses and curbing further foodborne illnesses”. 

Ndabeni said it was important to clarify that reaching the deadline for the registration period did not “necessarily mean that the problems and challenges of compliance by spaza shops and food handling outlets are over, nor does it mean that the sector is now fully regulated to adhere to the laws and regulations of the country”. 

The ultimate aim was twofold – to ensure compliance with all food safety standards and then rebuild a “more competitive and compliant business”. 

This was among the interventions in a multidisciplinary approach in curbing foodborne ailments. 

Ndabeni said her department supported the registration process, which the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs would elaborate on in two weeks. 

Ndabeni said she was there to speak only on her department’s work. When asked by journalists if the government would extend the registration period, she said: “I did indicate earlier, we’re speaking only on business here… The Natjoints (National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure), after receiving all the reports, will look at whatever needs to be looked at and we’ll make a determination and they will advise the country on what next – the registration [deadline] was only on Friday, and then that information needs to be consolidated.” 

Registered, but not yet compliant


On the registrations, Ndabeni said that “we know the process had challenges, with many municipalities not having electronic business registration systems”. 

As Daily Maverick reported on Friday, the day the registrations closed, those applying were met with frustration, with one business owner describing it as an “unending process”. 

Ndabeni announced that those who applied and were still awaiting registrations were “within their constitutional rights to do business”. They would not be penalised.

Ndabeni said she understood the difficulties and costs associated with becoming compliant. “This is why over the next six months we will be supporting these spaza shops who applied, but are not yet compliant, with non-financial support to enable their successful registration and compliance.” 

R500m support fund


During the briefing, Ndabeni said her department already had spaza shop support and training programmes under way for essentials such as inventory management and equipment such as point of sale systems. 

“We also have a range of other interventions and offerings to support township and rural enterprises, including Trep (the Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme), asset assist, business infrastructure support, as well as wholesale and direct lending, as well as credit guarantees we offer to banks to get them to lend to township and rural enterprises,” said Ndabeni. 

She announced a R500-million spaza shop support fund that would be launched in two weeks “to support township convenience shops, including spaza stores”.

Her department would provide R150-million while R350-million would come from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, said Ndabeni.

She explained that the fund aimed to achieve economies of scale “by linking spaza shops and food handling outlets to buying groups for bulk purchasing” and the building of business capacity through training and support. In addition, Ndabeni said the fund aimed to “enhance market competitiveness to help spaza shops and food handling outlets compete with larger retailers”. 

Addressing issues of compliance, she said: “It doesn’t matter if you’re non-South African or South African – compliance is compliance… If you are given access to do business, you’ve got to make sure that you’re compliant.”

‘Not enough’ — SA Spaza Shop Association 


After the briefing, Daily Maverick spoke to Kgothatso Ramautswa, the President of the South African Spaza Shop Association. 

He said out of 40,000 members, only 10,000 had been able to register. This he attributed to issues such as municipalities not having town planners who could assist with changing residential to business areas. 

“Then how do we deal with the issue of residential areas whereby we have a shop at our backyard and then we have to turn that thing into a business area?” He said other issues included a lack of access to title deeds. Ramautswa said it would also help to have standardised municipal by-laws. 

Ramautswa told Daily Maverick after Ndabeni’s briefing: “We’re seeing nice speeches, them being poetic – that’s the only thing that they know… But ourselves as [the spaza shop association], our issue now comes when we, as informal traders, when you have a container that is seated somewhere, how do you then go to formalise that particular thing?”

Ramautswa told Daily Maverick that ideally this registration process should take a year. 

When asked for a solution, Ramautswa suggested the minister “must call us and they just sit around the table, have business imbizos”. He questioned why the government was able to speak to unions and organisations, but not speak to informal traders.

Ramautswa said traders were willing to register.

“We’re calling for compliance, but we don’t want a crazy deadline that is unpredictable knowing that … Home Affairs is in backlog, the computers are not working, municipalities … computers are not working.” 

He said even if spaza shop owners wanted to register, “we are failed by the very same government”.

Also on Sunday, Gauteng MEC for Economic Development Lebogang Maile held a media briefing about spaza shop registrations. 

According to the SABC, Maile told journalists that as of 28 February, there had been 17,617 spaza shop and food handling facility registration applications in Gauteng. This included 7,107 applications by foreign nationals. 

On his X profile, Maile said there had been 29,116 inspections, with a total of 15,478 spaza shops and food-handling facilities deemed non-compliant, with 498 facilities closed with immediate effect. DM

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