Red tape strangles spaza grant as millions sit unused
Minister of Small Business Development Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has revealed that, despite the R500 million Spaza Shop Support Grant being launched, only a small portion of the funds have been disbursed, with just 109 spaza shops currently receiving assistance.
The minister was responding to a parliamentary question from African Transformation Movement (ATM) MP Thandiswa Marawu, who asked about the total amount disbursed, the number of beneficiaries, their demographics, and the geographic distribution of the funding.
Ndabeni-Abrahams said, “To date, 10 993 applications have registered and started the application through the Spaza Shop application portal. To date, 2 125 have completed the application process and need to be verified in terms of the programme criteria, which includes municipal licensing and permits.”
She added that of the 2 125 completed applications, “109 have confirmed licences and been verified by SEDFA and DSBD.
”R150 million has been budgeted for stock and POS devices and the 109 applications that have been approved are currently receiving the disbursements to the value of R6.3 million, R4.1 million for stock and R2.2 million for POS devices.”
The minister also highlighted that the remaining 2 016 completed applications cannot yet be processed.
“To further process the remaining 2 016 completed applications, confirmations from the municipalities are required to issue licences to these spaza shops as it is a compliance requirement for participation in the programme.
”Once the licences have been confirmed, a further R117 million will be disbursed, R80.6 million for stock and R37 million for POS devices,” she said.
On the beneficiaries’ demographics, Ndabeni-Abrahams confirmed that all approved recipients of the Spaza Shop Support Grant are South African citizens.
“All approved beneficiaries under the Spaza Shop programme are South African citizens, and none are naturalised South Africans,” she said, highlighting that the programme currently does not include foreign or naturalised entrepreneurs.
The minister also provided a detailed geographic breakdown of the approved beneficiaries, showing significant variation across provinces. “KwaZulu-Natal has 60 approved spaza shops, Limpopo 17, Free State 12, Gauteng 8, Mpumalanga 6, Northern Cape 5, and Western Cape 1,” she said.
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