November 5, 2002
By Thomas Thale
EVER since she was retrenched some four months ago, Sheilagh Ngculu has been operating a tiny shop from her Yeoville house. But her business faces closure following a court interdict ordering her and other operators to close shop.
Ngculu runs a "spaza" or "tuck shop", a small stall housed on a private property, an increasingly common sight in Johannesburg's inner city suburbs and townships. Spazas have for years operated in a "grey" legal area - they are very seldom registered as businesses or licensed to trade.
Ngculu's customers are mostly locals who patronise her spaza because of its close proximity and because it operates outside normal retail hours. Her shop opens just before 7am and only closes well after 8pm, making it a convenient place to buy basic household items like bread, milk, cooking oil and maize meal plus commodities such as loose cigarettes, soft drink and sweets - all in small quantities.
Sheilagh Ngculu showing off her spaza shop in Yeoville
"My prices are competitive and some of my goods are even cheaper than those at Checkers," Ngculu says. For her efforts, she makes a turnover of about R4 000 per month
From the entrance along Yeoville's Grafton Road, her house looks like a regular suburban home, neat and tidy. But round the corner, on the Becker Street side of her property, you are struck by the colourful letters advertising the tuck shop.
Ngculu is just one of the many people in the city who operate businesses of various kinds from their homes. Grafton Road alone boasts seven such undertakings. Telephone kiosks exist alongside hair salons, spaza shops and even a shebeen. Some yards in the Berea / Hillbrow / Yeoville area are used as makeshift workshops for mechanics and panel beaters. Others, like the Khilimanjaro in Honey Street, Berea, serve as brothels.
But now, as part of its drive to clean up the inner city, the City of Johannesburg has launched a campaign to clamp down on businesses which operate from residential areas. "We aim to eliminate these undertakings in an orderly fashion," says Allan Wheeler, head of the planning control inspectorate responsible for enforcing city by-laws.
The latest salvo in the city's campaign against such operations was fired on Friday when the council applied for and was granted a high court order to have some of the illegal operations shut down. Other home traders have been served with notices to close their operations.
The traders, says Wheeler, are in violation of the Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme of 1979 and of the city building control by-laws. "We have also received complaints from residents and from the SAPS that these shops attract criminal elements."
Kevin Wilkins, senior town planner for Steve Jaspan and Associates, says the only recourse for people like Ngculu is to apply to have their premises rezoned for business.
Such an application costs more than R2 000 and may take up to a year to process. "It is a long process which includes a notification in newspapers calling for public input," Wheeler explains. This advice applies only to people who operate tuck shops, and at present, of the 88 traders facing closure, only 12 have indicated their intention to apply for rezoning.
Wilkins accuses the city of being inconsistent in its drive to eliminate house shops, targeting only traders in Yeoville and leaving township spaza shop owners to operate with impunity. "The same principle should apply across the board."
This allegation is refuted by Wheeler, who points out that "our clean up operation is not limited to Yeoville but extends to all parts of the city. We are in the process of closing down scrapyards in Alexandra".
Wheeler advises such owners to move to proper shops or to relocate to areas designated for informal trading. "Otherwise we will act against them," he warns.
In the meantime, Ngculu lives with the hope that her application for rezoning will be favourably considered. "This is my only source of income. Otherwise, how will I make a living?" she asks rhetorically. "I'm in my late 40s and it's difficult to find a job at my age. What I'm doing is better than stealing. I never buy stolen goods."
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