Wellingtoners Outraged at Extra Fee Charges by Foreign-Owned Tuckshops

Residents from Wellington in the heart of Drakenstein are speaking up against the excessive extra prices charged at tuckshops within their communities. Although access to airtime and electricity has become a great courtesy to the community who do not have immediate access to stores in the town centre there is great concern regarding exploitative actions committed by foreign-owned tuckshop owners. 

Community members from Van Wykslvlei and Weltevrede areas are speaking out regarding the extra fees they are being charged at the overwhelmingly foreign-owned tuckshops dominating the brown communities of Wellington. Discussions are taking place on community platforms whereby residents claim that foreign-owned shops are charging as much as an extra R10 on R100 worth of groceries when paying with a card. 

Cheraldine says that when a person withdraws money at the tuckshops, an extra R10 is charged by the shopkeepers, claiming that the added charge is part of a service fee for using their card machines. 

Another resident, Gerty, stated that shops in the Main Road of Wellington owned by foreigners are charging R1 for every card swipe and another R1 when purchasing airtime. Considering the vast amount of stores within the town of Wellington, this exploitative behaviour seems to be common mostly amongst foreign-owned businesses, according to residents.

Members of the community are looking to take action against overcharging at the shops and are pursuing all available channels in search of assistance to put a stop to this undignified situation.

Furthermore, some residents are appealing to the question of reinstating family-owned tuckshops that once flourished within the communities of Wellington.