By Anita Dangazele
- A KwaLanga woman paid R10 to withdraw R50, saying she depends on her son’s social grant to survive.
- The Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman says charging extra for card payments breaks the Consumer Protection Act.
A woman from Greenfield in KwaLanga, Kariega says she felt robbed after a spaza shop charged her R10 to withdraw R50.
She depends on her son’s social grant to survive.
“It’s daylight robbery. I needed the cash so that I could have a taxi fare to get to town. I only depend on my son’s social grant, that money is already not enough to care for all our needs and now I’m forced to pay extra just to access my money,” she said.
She said she knows big supermarkets usually require customers to buy something before getting cashback.
“But paying R10 extra to get R50 is too much,” she said.
Another woman, who is looking for work, said she was charged R5 extra when she swiped her card at a spaza shop on Govan Mbeki Avenue.
She had gone there to print her curriculum vitae so she could apply for a job.
“Just yesterday, I went to print out some documents at a spaza shop in Govan Mbeki Avenue. I needed to submit my cv somewhere. I did not have any cash with me and the money in my account was just enough to get me where I needed to be but I had to pay an extra R5 for swiping,” she said.
Spaza shops across the country are facing anger from customers over these charges.
The Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman said it is against the law for shops to charge more because a customer pays by card.
Ombud Lee Soobrathi said this breaks Section 23 of the Consumer Protection Act, which deals with fair pricing.
“If a product is labelled R10 and I opt to pay by card, the shop cannot charge me R12 just because I’m not using cash. That’s not allowed,” Soobrathi said.
Consumers can report shops to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman, the National Consumer Commission or the Payments Association of South Africa on 012 065 1950 or +27 10 140 7100.
Pictured above: A speed point machine at a local spaza shop.
Image source: Anita Dangazele
