Frustrated members of the Tshwane-based Region 7 (Bronkhorstspruit and Ekangala) School Vendors Association marched to the City of Tshwane Municipality headquarters (Tshwane House) to deliver a heartfelt memorandum on Friday wherein they, among other issues, demanded that Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya must stop prioritising foreign spaza shop owners over local South African school vendors.
The Region 7 School Vendors Association represents people who sell food stuffs, sweets and snacks to learners at various schools in the Bronkhorstspruit/ Ekangala townships.
“Mayor Nasiphi Moya has been making a noise telling all and sundry that she would prioritise locals regarding small business enterprises, yet at the moment training for the Municipality’s Food Handlers Certificate course is being given to foreign spaza shop owners while we South Africans are being neglected, yet we have already paid the required R577, 50c fee for the training course in January 2024 but have not been trained as yet,” said a fuming Kagiso Popela, who is the association’s chairperson.
He pointed out that without the Municipality’s Food Handlers Certificate they as school vendors can’t be given the Certificate of Acceptance (COA), and that without the COA they can’t sell their stuff at schools because school principals chase them away if they don’t have the COA.
According to Popela, the COA costs a whooping R1008 (One thousand and eight rand) and must be renewed with the same amount every year.
“This amount of R1008 is tantamount to the profit that we make each and every school time and if we pay the R1008 it means that though we are working for a duration of four school terms, we only make profit from three school terms as the Municipality takes away all the profit we make from one school term,” he fumed.
He demanded that they as poor, black school vendors must be categorised under the poorest of the poor folks and that their fees for both COA and Food Handlers Certificate course must be reduced and that they must be charged R108 (one hundred and eight rand).
Popela pointed out that the Food Handlers Certificate must be renewed every two years with the said R577,50c fee which he insisted is too high.
“Foreign spaza shop owners have been given Food Handlers Certificates as well as the Certificate of Acceptance, yet we don’t know as to when and where they received the said training because we as black South African vendors are always told by the Municipality that training is not yet available,” enthused Popela.
“The City of Tshwane MMC for Health must expedite the issue of both the Food Handlers Certificate and the Certificate of Acceptance as these are matters which fall under her department and we want to be trained within 7 days from the day of submission of this memorandum,” he said.
He complained that he has many debts which he must settle, and that since they have been prevented from selling their stuff at schools he can’t pay the said debts.
Requirements for Food Handlers Certificate as well as the Certificate of Acceptance were actively enforced by the City of Tshwane Municipality after numerous incidents of food poisoning at various schools were reported in Tshwane and the country at large.
“Food poisoning was caused by foreign spaza shop owners yet we as black school vendors are being prevented from working while the cause of the food poisoning problem, the foreigners, are allowed to work as usual,” he said.
“Foreigners sell their stuff freely to learners but we as South African vendors are being persecuted by our own Municipality and forced to pay high fees which we can’t afford,” said an irate Elizabeth Mokoena who is a vendor at Sinenhlanhla Primary School at Zithabiseni township, Bronkhorstspruit.
“City of Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya must take us seriously because we depend on selling food stuffs to school children in order to make a living, and in my household there is no one who is employed and my family depends on me to take care of them,” she said as she in the process decried the harrassment they suffer at the hands of permit-seeking and bribe-taking Tshwane Metro Police Department officers.
“The government and the City of Tshwane Municipality stand up for the rights of Somalians, Pakistanis and Ethiopians while we as South African vendors are made to suffer,” lamented Mokoena.
She said the Municipality must instead demand the high fees regarding COA and Food Handlers Certificate from big retail stores like Pick ‘n Pay and Shoprite as they as ordinary black vendors can’t afford such exorbitant amounts of money.
“Sometimes some of us make as little as R4 in profit a day yet the Municipality demands that we pay amounts of money that we can’t afford,” said Sphiwe Miche, who sells his stuff at one of the schools in Ekangala.
“There are elderly women selling their stuff at schools because they have to take care of their grandchildren whose parents are either dead or unemployed,” he said.
There are no economic opportunities where we live and these high fees must be cancelled and we must be allowed to pay as little as R10 for the compliance certificates required by the City of Tshwane,” he said.
Sylvia Busisiwe Mogale of Zithobeni, who sells her stuff at the Vezilwazi Primary School told Tshwane Talks that fees demanded by the City of Tshwane in terms of its bylaws are oppressive and pointed out that such fees are not demanded from foreign spaza shop owners.
“I sell cheap foodstuffs to school children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds whose parents mostly depend on the R370 SASSA grant and can’t afford expensive food, which means I don’t make lots of money,” she said.
“Where the hell does the Municipality and the government think we are going to get money from to pay for the certificates of compliance because the TMPD officers prevent us from selling our stuff while allowing foreigners to do as they wish?” she asked.
She also pointed out that they as South African vendors were stopped from selling their food while foreign-owned spaza shop owners continue to sell their products which have caused food poisoning in Tshwane as well as the rest of the country.
“Enough is enough, we don’t have money to comply with the City of Tshwane Municipality bylaws in the form of COA and the Food Handlers Certificate,”she said.
City of Tshwane Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana apologised for keeping the irate marchers waiting for a long time before he could come and receive their memorandum of demands and said he was not treating the marchers with contempt.
He revealed that he was in a meeting and not aware that the marchers would be coming to submit a memorandum to his office.
He announced that he would pass the memorandum on to the City of Tshwane Department of Economic Development as his office doesn’t deal with the matters raised in the memorandum submitted by the marchers.
He promised that his office will organise a suitable date for an urgent meeting with the residents of Region 7 to discuss the issue of township economic development, and said that is where the grievances of the marchers would be addressed.