Deadline to register spaza shops extended to February

Spaza shop owners have until February to register their businesses with the Drakenstein Municipality.

The registration of spaza or informal shops follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s instruction for them to be registered made last year in an address to the nation on Friday November 15.

President Ramaphosa gave owners of these informal shops 21 days to register their businesses.

This deadline to register spaza shops and other informal food-handling facilities has now been extended to Friday February 28.

“Drakenstein Municipality is appealing to owners of spaza shops and other food-handling outlets in the municipal area, who have not yet adhered to the government’s call to register their businesses, to do so before the new extended deadline of 28 February 2025.

“This follows the announcement by Velenkosini Hlabisa, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, on Wednesday, 18 December 2024, that the deadline for registrations had been extended,” the municipality says in a statement.

President Ramaphosa directed that all spaza shops and other food-handling facilities must be registered within the municipalities in which they operate and that any shop that is not registered before the deadline and does not meet all health standards and requirements, is closed.

Drakenstein Municipality says that even if spaza or house shop owners still have some outstanding information which they cannot supply immediately, they should please come and register their shops to ensure they comply with the President’s request.

They can do so by submitting their applications to the Municipality’s Land Development Management Division, located on the third floor of the Paarl Civic Centre, Berg River Boulevard, Paarl, daily between daily 8am and 4.45pm and between 8am and 3.30pm on Fridays.

The municipal offices were closed for the festive season, but reopened on Thursday January 2.