N O I T A I C O S S A P O SPAZA AND TUCKSH BILL O C C A B O T O T O N S Y SA frican Spaza and Tuckshop Association
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The South A e issue adds its voice to th
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he South African Spaza and Tuckshop Association (SASTA) was formed in 1997 as a club and in 1999 established as an association. In the year 2000, it was launched as a fully fledged NGO under the then-Greater Johannesburg mayor Mr Isaac Mogase's wing. The purpose of the organisation is to make the benefits of collective bargaining available to its members: spaza shops, tuckshops, general dealers, hair salons, and clothing stalls. SASTA members are located nationwide in cities, small towns, townships, taxi ranks and on sidewalks. SASTA aims to facilitate business operations for smaller business owners, who are mostly the vulnerable informal entities seeking education and training regarding general business formalities. We facilitate training on how to professionally manage
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businesses for all our members. They are taught about small business marketing, financial management, effective stock procurement, customer service, corporate imaging, business formalisation and legal matters. Our members are supported consistently in order to ensure their continued survival and sustainability. Our submission on this Bill is part of this mandate.
current Bill and that government has thus ignored the pleas of small business owners in our poorest neighbourhoods.
SASTA is opposed to the proposed draft Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, 2018.
We do not comment in detail because the proposed Bill is inherently flawed. This Bill is completely inappropriate for spaza and tuckshop owners, whose interests we represent. We should either be exempted from it entirely or it should be scrapped. The Bill’s provisions cannot be applied or enforced in spazas and tuckshops because they are too small and most of their owners are too poor and unsophisticated.
We repeat the concerns raised with government on 28 February 2011 and 23 November 2012, respectively, concerning the regulations relating to the display of tobacco products at wholesalers and retailers. We note with disappointment that those regulations appear to have been included in the
The display ban is not only impracticable for most businesses but even dangerous. For every tobacco transaction, the shop owner will need to search for cigarettes in a hiding place and among packs that look identical. This will expose our members to a much higher risk of theft and attack.
Our opposition to the Bill
