There are at least 100 000 spaza shops in South Africa – with an estimated 40 000 located in Gauteng – with a collective turnover of well over R7 billion per annum. Each spaza shop employs between two and three people, who in turn support an average of four family members. This translates into almost one million people benefiting from the existence of a spaza shop in their neighbourhood.

However, many of spaza shop owners do not hold formal business management qualifications and indeed, a significant number of them run spazas only as a means of survival. Often, they do not communicate with each other and receive very little relevant information about their sector.

There is therefore a huge need to provide as much information as possible and further empower these (mostly) township-based entrepreneurs. However, there is no single publication providing news and information to this sector. Spaza News aims to plug this gap by providing information that is useful and practical to spaza shop owners. It also serves as an empowerment tool to help spaza shop owners improve their businesses.

 Spaza shops definition: small retail enterprises operating from a residential stand or home and engaged in the trading of consumer goods