The City of Ekurhuleni will only grant legal vendors special permits to trade during the lockdown.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, issued amended Covid-19 regulations on April 3, which make provision for grocery stores and wholesale produce markets, including spaza shops and informal traders, to trade during the current lockdown.
In terms of the amended Covid-19 regulations, the informal traders must operate on condition that they have written permission from their local authority.
Themba Gadebe, spokesperson for the city, said: “In light of the above, informal traders and spaza shop owners will have to apply for temporary trading permission as stipulated in the Business Act No 71 of 1991.
“The temporary trading permission will apply for the duration of the declared lockdown and shall only be issued to current legal hawking permission holders. No new permission applications or proxies or transfers shall be considered during the lockdown,” said Gadebe in a statement.
However, spaza shops that do not have trading licences or permissions as envisaged in the Business Act, shall be granted a temporary reprieve through the issuance of trading permission that will apply for the duration of the declared lockdown on condition that the application is supported by the relevant stakeholders.
The City will give sanitisers, gloves and masks to traders of processed and unprocessed food products whose applications are granted. The sanitisers, gloves and masks will be given on first come first served basis, according to Gadebe.
Applications for temporary trading permissions will be open from noon to 4pm on Monday and from 9am to 4pm weekdays henceforth.
The City of Ekurhuleni has put in place procedures that informal traders must adhere to in order to be issued with temporary trading permissions.
Visit https://www.ekurhuleni.gov.za/media-relations/issuing-of-temporary-trading-permits-to-spaza-shops-and-informal-traders.html to download the application form and view the procedures.
Ward 32 Clr Marius de Vos is concerned about the minister’s announcement regarding informal trading.
“I think these ministers are irresponsible by amending the regulations every day. In my view, it is grossly unfair to other businesses in the services industry to be closed down for 21 days, but informal traders who are largely voting a particular way are allowed to trade.
“Then they pass the buck to the ward councillor to issue permits, which is in fact contrary to the Municipal Systems Act. A councillor is not allowed to influence or perform administrative functions,” said de Vos.
He explained that he has been inundated with calls from people who all of a sudden pretend to be informal traders, requesting permits to go out to trade.
“The minister of COGTA just opened the floodgates to abuse the system,” the ward councillor expressed his opinion.
He firmly believes everybody should adhere to the 21-day lockdown regulations.
“Stay home; keep social distance in order to flatten the curve of infection. I’m sure all the business people will be benefiting from a flattened curve which will get the economy back on track,” he highlighted.
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