July 28, 2003
By Thomas Thale
OWNERS of spaza shops in Yeoville could soon be allowed to operate legally without fear of being raided by the City's law enforcers.
Councillor Sol Cowan, chair of the Informal Traders Forum that acts on behalf of hawker leaders and council representatives, confirmed that the City was in the process of reviewing the Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme of 1979, which outlawed house shops in Yeoville. "The issue is being looked at by the Department of Town Planning and a report will be tabled before the council in September."
Many spaza owners in Yeoville have, in the past few months, been raided and prosecuted by the City for operating businesses in an area zoned primarily for residential use. A spaza is a small stall housed on a private property.
The crackdown on illegal business operations in the area has seen metro police officers and the red ants (personnel from Wozani Security company) dismantling signs, confiscating infrastructure such as goods and shelving, and prosecuting offenders. The City had obtained interdicts against several of the spaza operators and many had been raided and had their goods seized.
Rudy Erasmus, operations manager of the City's Land Use Management, said the City was in the process of conducting a survey to establish the physical requirements of spaza shops and telephone kiosks in the area. "We must first determine issues like the number of operators, their staff complement, the size of the premises and the products to be sold in a spaza shop," said Erasmus. "Only then can we table a report to council, with relevant recommendations."
Once the survey was completed, said Erasmus, the City could amend the Town Planning Scheme to enable the council to consider applications from spaza shop owners.
Aspirant spaza shop owners have until the end of July to complete a questionnaire, available from the eighth floor of the Metro Building in Braamfontein. "We want a report to be complete by the end of August," Erasmus said. "The report will then be tabled before various council committees."
Edmund Elias, spokesman of the Informal Business Forum, welcomed the review, but called on the city to place a moratorium on raiding spaza shops until the process had run its course. "The IBF has insisted that a request for a moratorium until the law is changed be submitted to the mayoral committee," Elias said.
