Home Affairs Minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, says the country is facing a challenge of undocumented foreign nationals running spaza shops in villages.
Motsoaledi revealed this during his visit in Oakley, Bushbuckridge where 10 home affairs trucks have been brought to the area to assist the community with various services for the next five days.
He met with the Mpumalanga House of Traditional leaders Chairperson, Kgoshi Lameck Mokoena.
Motsoaledi says all spaza shop owners in villages must be known by the local chiefs.
“All the mayors must take an audit of all the spaza shops. You cannot have a spaza shop that is unregistered. They must produce documents and register. People who have no documents, who are illegal, we’ll have to deport them. There is nothing we can do. Those who have documents, we will register and register them for tax.”
Mokoena says they are dealing with the influx of undocumented spaza shop owners in their areas. He says he has instructed all chiefs to verify all the spaza owners in their villages.
“We made a call to all my headmen and my traditional councillors. I want a report of all foreign nationals who are residing at Mathibela area, so that they may be registered – so that we know whether they have documentation or not. There are many crimes here. You might not even know who is committing them. That is the drive we are pushing.”
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