By Daanyaal Matthews
The health concerns around spaza shops have prompted a response from President Cyril Ramaphosa, who announced a multifaceted government plan to tackle the issue of food poisoning, a plan that would encapsulate all forms of government from national to local municipalities.
One plan of the President is to have all spaza shops registered in 21 days and have police close all stores that are non-registered after, has been deemed unfeasible given the sheer amount of spaza shops present in the nine provinces.
However, that plan is only one of many, as the President has announced plans of a public education campaign, a whole-scale cleanup of local municipalities, and the allotment of R500 million towards supporting townships and rural businesses, all of which ponder the answer of realistic expectations given the time frame.
Speaking on Newsbeat, Professor Alex van den Heever, Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies at the Wits School of Governance, argued that the objectives of government are insurmountable given the timeframe and proliferation of spaza shops in the Republic.
“There are 150 000 spaza shops, so registering them all in a few days—in 20 days or so—is a bit ambitious, and the question is, is that the problem? I suggest that it might be more efficient to be more targeted, so it’s unclear why they took that approach. But there’s nothing wrong with getting a process of registration, but 150 000 is a bit of a challenge,” detailed Professor van den Heever.
For Professor van den Heever, the greater issue is tied to fundamental problems present in municipalities, such as inefficiencies in waste management, which the President has acknowledged as one of the reasons that harmful substances are abused in more impoverished communities.
“The other problem is that the reason for the poison was rat poisoning in municipalities where municipalities were not properly managing. So, all of that has to be addressed as a matter of priority, but again, government works through municipalities, and you have many, major municipalities that are dysfunctional, not only the smaller ones,” commented Van Den Heever.
Listen to the full interview here:
Photo: PresidencyZA
