JOHANNESBURG - The South African Spaza and Tuck Shop Association said there are low levels of local ownership in the township retail sector.
The association’s Sibusiso Ngcobo said greater support is needed for township entrepreneurs.
“The research that was done by Transcend Capital in 2021 showed that there were 179,000 tuck shops in the country, of which less than 10% belonged to South African.
“So it could show that there was a huge disparity in who could own these tech shops or unfair competition that was maybe channelled through the townships because of the lack of support and infrastructure to assist locals in being able to compete and be able to have a foot in the business in their own townships that they grew up in,” said Ngcobo.