The recent rhetoric by the government on the issue of foreign-owned tuckshops is at least encouraging. It suggests that authorities are finally waking up to the reality that the exclusion of black people in the mainstream township and rural economies is unsustainable.
By far the multibillion rand spaza shop industry is controlled by non-South Africans.
I was raised by shopkeeper parents. I remain grateful to the people of Section B Ncotshane, Pongola, who supported my parents’ shop.
My father’s shop is currently rented by Ethiopians, after he could not cope with the competition from the many spaza shops that sprung around his shop.
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