Spaza shop

The term spaza shop designated a small, informal shop in the townships or in rural South Africa. It is usually applied in a flat- building in the apartment of the dealer or in a separate building structure with everyday goods.

This class of shops emerged in the process of expansion of townships in the area, which in past times was too difficult or expensive to a legitimate retail store. You ask for the owner is an attractive source of income, since their business is often unlicensed and therefore operated without tax liability.

The shopkeepers are mostly poorly educated people in commercial matters, often black women. The cause of an exposure to the informal economic structures applies the targeting low- valence education policy during the apartheid era. The South African government is trying today to offer the owners an education. However, a particular problem is the foreign holders of such stores, since their stay is often illegal and could lead support from the state of irritation in the native population.

When Unregistered operated spaza shops, it is the owners not possible to operate a bank account for their business. As a result, they need to keep themselves relatively greater amounts of cash and are therefore disproportionately often the target of theft and robberies. Due to the increase in such crimes of violence, the provincial authorities were particularly prompted to take action against the owner of the black market, especially with trade itself criminal and dangerous activities are linked (production of alcohol).

The operators usually go even by public transport or taxis in larger settlements and buy the goods in retail stores in order to sell in their own village.