BCM CLOSES DOWN NON-COMPLIANT SPAZA SHOPS
As part of ensuring that businesses comply with health and safety environmental standards, the Buffalo City Metro conduced raid operations.

The Metro closed down 6 Spaza shops in the North End area on Friday 15 July 2022 due to non compliance with environmental health regulations.

The multi stakeholder raid was led by the City's Municipal Health Services Department and included the South African Police Service. The raid happened after the City issued notices to the various spaza shops in the North End area that were found not to be compliant in terms of the legislation on food handling.

Speaking about the raid, BCM General Manager for Municipal Health Services Advocate Boniswa Mzimba said: “We are conducting inspections in all spaza shops in the North End area. We are closing down six shops because they have not been compliant with all the notices despite the support that we have given them."

"The conditions are filthy and there is a lot of non compliances. Licenses are not in place, the zonings of the shops are also not legal and there are a whole lot of issues that we are finding which are related terms to the contravention of the bylaws of the municipality.”

"This is also a platform for us to educate and empower the owners on how to comply with the environmental health regulations," said Advocate Mzimba.

The multi-stakeholders that attended the raid included the Metro’s Disaster Management, City Planning division, Business licencing, Solid Waste, Vegetation control, Engineering roads department, Legal services, Traffic services, Law enforcement and the South African Police Services.

The City has vowed to continue with these operations and is issuing a warning to spaza shops to comply.

2022-07-20