Advocate Thuli Madonsela Warns Against Closing Spaza Shops

• Former public protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela said spaza shops should not be closed
• She spoke after the African National Congress's secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, proposed the spaza shops be closed
• She said that this would contribute to an increase in poverty, and South Africans strongly disagreed with her

Tebogo Mokwena, a dedicated Briefly News current affairs journalist, contributed coverage of international and local social issues like health, corruption, education, unemployment, labour, service delivery protests and heritage in South Africa during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG — Former Public Protector Professor Thuli Madonsela said closing spaza shops in the country would be a bad idea.

Thuli Madonsela opposes spaza shop closing

TimesLIVE reported that Madonsela believed inspecting spaza shops would be a better approach than closing all of them down. She said it would also be better to close down delinquent spaza shops found guilty of selling contaminated goods. She said closing them down would not only skew commercial gains in the township but also worsen poverty, inequality and hunger.

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During a press briefing, the African National Congress's secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, recently said that all spaza shops should be shut down and registered afresh. His statements came after South Africa experienced a spate of children's deaths related to food poisoning from allegedly eating food sold at spaza shops.

South Africans disagree

Netizens on Facebook voiced their disapproval of Madonsela's statements.

Charles Molema said:

"This has got nothing to do with hunger. What is important is to pay tax just like any other business."

Briga GP said:

"She must provide solutions, not problems."

Vusi Mavula Leso said:

"It's because she is not affected."

Ferdi Thomson said:

"It's not like these spaza shop owners provide massive jobs for our people."

TK Vee said:

"Unfortunately, her comments are invalid."

Fikile Mbalula provides updates

In a related article, Briefly News reported that Mbalula said the government is acting to resolve the rising number of food poisoning-related deaths.

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He spoke during a march in Tshwane and said President Cyril Ramaphosa told him that the government would work with the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.

Source: Briefly News