Covid-19: Spaza shop trading permits issued without glitches
BRAAMFONTEIN – The City is currently issuing the Spaza-Shop trading permits.
Informal traders from across Johannesburg gathered in numbers at Jorrisen Place in Braamfontein on 6 April, the first day of the three-days allocated by the City to apply for a trading permit during the 21-day lockdown.
The application process will run until 8 April between 9am and 4pm.
This comes after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s recent amendment of regulations governing the 21-day lockdown with the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs now permitting spaza-shops and street vendors to trade, provided they obtain a permit from their ward councillor or municipality.
The City’s MMC for Economic Development, councillor Lloyd Phillips said despite being oversubscribed, the application process was running smoothly. “We have put systems and capacity in place to make sure that this process runs smoothly. We don’t want people to stand in queues for a long time,” Phillips said.
Traders applying for municipal permits need to meet the following requirements:
• Only food traders (fruit and vegetables) may apply
• Only traders with a CoJ Certificate of Acceptability (COA) from the Environmental Health Department in their possession are eligible for permits
• Traders must have proof of trading (JPC statement/smart card)
• A valid identity document or passport photo is required to produce the permit.
The City is working with stakeholders of various sectors to ramp up the enforcement of compliance measures to public health orders for the 21-day lockdown. This is meant to prevent contraventions of the Disaster Management Act and contain further transmissions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Regulations of the Act provide for spaza-shops and supermarkets to only trade in essential goods, however, it prohibits the transportation and sale of liquor, cigarettes and other merchandise.
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