Maile on progress in spaza shop registration and compliance across Gauteng municipalities

Gauteng MEC of Finance and Economic Development Lebogang Maile says the number of spaza shops issued with application forms has increased from 13,616 to 21,172—an impressive rise of over 7,000.

Among these, 10,389 applications have been submitted across all Gauteng municipalities.

Maile was addressing the media in Johannesburg on the registration of spaza shops, food-handling facilities, and the extension of the application deadline.

Maile said however that the number of applications returned due to missing documentation has also grown, from 1,916 to 2,677, reflecting the larger volume of submissions.

“Applications from non-South African nationals have risen to 2,818, an increase of 213 since the last update. This demonstrates growing compliance with the President’s directive, signaling the effectiveness of Gauteng Provincial Government interventions,” said Maile.

He said municipalities have made strides in addressing bottlenecks.

For instance, the City of Ekurhuleni has issued 23 business licenses to date. In Johannesburg, 93 land-use