Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi Approves White Paper to Tax Foreign-Owned Spaza Shops

• Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi announced that Cabinet approved the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection
• Motsoaledi said this white paper highlights that all spaza shops, including those owned by foreign nationals, will be taxed
• The president of the National Union of Municipal Chambers of Commerce and Industry (NUMCCI), Albert Jeleni, discussed the paper with Briefly News
• He added that if the owners' papers are not in order, government will close the shop down

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, has covered policy changes, the State of the Nation Address, politician-related news and elections at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News for over seven years.

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JOHANNESBURG – Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that Cabinet has given the final white paper on immigration the green light. With this white paper, Motsoaledi said that foreign-owned spaza shops would be regulated and forced to pay taxes.

White paper aims to tax spaza shops

According to TimesLIVE, Motsoaledi said the final White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection will ensure that foreign-owned spaza shops pay tax and are regularly audited. He added that the Department of Health will impose standards on spaza shops.

These standards will prevent spaza shop owners from selling food, sleeping, cooking, eating or washing in spaza shops. Motsoaledi also admitted that his department has no idea how many foreign nationals are in the country. He said the white paper would crack down on illegal foreigners in the country under false pretences.

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"Pan-Africanism does not promote illegality or illegal entry," he said.

NUMCCI discusses paper with Briefly News

Albert Jeleni, the president of the National Union of Municipal Chambers of Commerce and Industry, shared his views with Briefly News.

"While we commend the initiative, the problems being experienced are not because of lack of legislation but failure to implement, and one would have expected efforts to be towards enforcement. We have the municipality bylaws, the provincial business registration act that already has enough provisions to address the issues the amendments seek to address," he said.

South Africans discuss the white paper

Netizens on Facebook shared different perspectives on the white paper.

Tshepho Ramodula said:

"The only minister that comes with changes when he is given a task."

Kanye Pamba said:

"Spaza shops or any SME businesses with an investment of less than R5 million ZAR should be reserved for South Africans only."

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Sello Selei said:

"Work on it. They are not banking. Let them pay a fixed fee for operating, like R1 000 per month."

Tornado Willy Stsuatsua said:

"Motsoaledi for president."

Mawande Nkunzi said:

"We salute you, minister. Please join EFF."

Aaron Motsoaledi asks SIU to probe Home Affairs fraud

In a similar article, Briefly News reported that Motsoaledi called on the Special Investigating Unit to investigate fraud in his department.

His statements came after the CFO of the North West Home Affairs was suspended and accused of having a fraudulently obtained citizenship status.

Source: Briefly News