Frequently asked questions

Khula Ekasi is a business management platform built for the Khula Foundation NPC. It formalises and supports South Africa's spaza economy — helping register shops, track compliance, manage inventory and equipment, and coordinate field operations from national oversight down to the individual counter.

It serves everyone in the network: national and provincial administrators who need oversight and reporting, area coordinators and supervisors managing groups of outlets, field workers capturing shop data on the ground, and individual shop operators running day-to-day operations.

Registration captures the outlet's location (with GPS coordinates), owner details and operating information, then assigns a unique registry code. A coordinator or field worker can onboard a shop in minutes, after which it becomes visible in provincial reporting and can be equipped with terminals and stock catalogues.

National reform following the 2024 food-safety crisis has pushed all spaza shops toward formal registration and licensing. Khula helps you track registration, licensing and food-safety readiness against evolving policy — it does not replace official SARS or municipal registration, but it keeps your compliance status organised in one place.

The government's R500-million Spaza Support Fund offers compliant shop owners up to R300,000 each (structured as 50% grant / 50% loan) for compliance upgrades, equipment and working capital. Eligibility depends on registration and compliance status. Khula helps you keep the documentation and readiness that these programmes require.

All nine — Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape. The platform currently manages 5,038 outlets across 52+ mapped districts.

Field operations are GPS-enabled: workers capture outlet locations and photos in the field, and every shop is placed on a geospatial map. Coordinators can filter and report by province, district or individual shop, giving oversight bodies real numbers instead of estimates.

Access is role-based, so administrators, coordinators, supervisors and operators each see only what their role permits. We handle personal information in line with South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). See our Privacy Policy for details.

Pricing depends on the size and structure of the network you're bringing on — from a single shop to a provincial or national rollout. Request a demo and the team will put together the right plan with you.

The fastest route is to request a demo. Existing coordinators and operators can log in to the platform directly.