Small business development minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has revealed that R44.572m of the R500m spaza shop support fund has been disbursed to 728 South African-owned spaza shops across the country.
The minister shared these figures on X following public pressure for accountability after the launch of a separate R300m construction fund on Tuesday.
Minister, believe it or not, we actually want you to succeed. Not because we support you, but because the youth of this country are DESPERATE for jobs and dignity.
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So when we ask for accountability, it's not an attack.
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In response, Ndabeni-Abrahams outlined how the money has been used and which provinces have benefited most.
Ndabeni-Abrahams explained that while R44.572m has been paid out, a further R362.7m in applications is in the pipeline. She confirmed there are 4,526 ready-to-process applications covering stock, assets/infrastructure and non-financial support.
Of the applications now being processed 4,426 are for black-owned businesses, 2,207 are female-owned, 1,267 are youth-owned (ages 18–35) and 118 are owned by people with disabilities.
“The fund is closed to foreign nationals by design,” Ndabeni-Abrahams said.
The data showed that KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo are leading in securing funding to date:
- KwaZulu-Natal: 288 shops assisted (R17.28m)
- Limpopo: 171 shops assisted (R11.12m)
- Free State: 83 shops assisted (R4.65m)
- Western Cape: 46 shops assisted (R2.99m)
- Gauteng: 43 shops assisted (R2.80m)
- Eastern Cape: 42 shops assisted (R2.52m)
- Mpumalanga: 20 shops assisted (R1.12m)
- Northern Cape: 19 shops assisted (R1.06m)
- North West: 16 shops assisted (R1.04m)
The initiative was launched last year in collaboration with the department of trade, industry and competition. This followed a mandate requiring all spaza shops and food-handling outlets to register their operations.
Despite high interest — with 84,572 verified registrations out of 94,920 portal entries — the minister admitted that the rollout faced hurdles.
“We are not at the pace we want,” she said. “The bottleneck is municipal certificates of acceptability and business licences.”
To ensure the funds reach owners effectively, the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) have contracted three delivery channel partners.
These partners are responsible for stock distribution, point of sale (POS) systems, and capacity building. The minister emphasised that these third-party partners provide logistical support only and “do not hold or manage the money”.
TimesLIVE
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