Liquor traders plead
‘END BAN NOW’: SECTOR REQUESTS MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT
We do not see how we can recover from this ban
SAB cancels another R2.5bn of investments and heads to court to mount challenge.
Liquor traders have called directly on President Cyril Ramaphosa to meet with the industry and end the current ban on alcohol sales. In a statement on Saturday, the group said the industry is being decimated and a continued ban will spell ruin to businesses and put at least 250 000 jobs in jeopardy.
The statement by the Liquor Traders Formation comes a day after South African Breweries (SAB) announced it was cancelling another R2.5 billion of investments earmarked for this year.
The firm is also taking government to court to have the alcohol sales ban overturned.
South African liquor producers are being heavily affected by another alcohol ban accompanying the lockdown. As small to medium enterprises, some craft breweries diversify their activities, like making hand sanitiser, to stay afloat.
The traders said while they supported the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, they “fully support” SAB’s court action against the alcohol sales ban.
The current ban on the sale of alcohol was implemented on 28 December and was initially set to expire on Friday. It was implemented to decrease the number of hospital trauma cases resulting from alcohol abuse during the second wave of the pandemic.
However, in his nationwide address last week, Ramaphosa announced prohibition would remain in place. He did not give any indication of when the ban might be lifted, leaving the industry in limbo.
The liquor traders are asking that the ban be lifted for off-site consumption, for taverns and shebeens to receive R20 000 per outlet in financial assistance and a moratorium on liquor licence fees for the rest of the year.
“The continued ban on alcohol sales continues to wreak havoc in the sector and looks set to condemn thousands of livelihoods to poverty,” the traders said.
“The third and current alcohol ban seems to be the surest way yet that a death knell has indeed been pronounced on the tavern sector. We do not see how we can recover or let alone come back from this ban.”
The group stated that if the sector was to remain unable to operate, the livelihoods of 250 000 employees were in direct danger. “The alcohol industry has already lost an estimated R25 billion and counting, due to the three bans it had to endure and if the status quo remains, we are on course to shed a record number of jobs in a sector that has always been known to create and sustain livelihoods,” said Formation Convener Lucky Ntimane.
On Friday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) also entered into the fray, calling the ban “economically crippling”.
“It is abundantly clear this ban is having devastating economic consequences for South Africa,” said Dean Macpherson, the DA’s shadow minister of trade, industry and competition.
The comments came as SAB prepared to challenge the blanket ban of alcohol sales in court.
In an earlier statement, the multinational brewer said it “believes that any ban, including the current one, goes far beyond what is reasonable and necessary to contain the spread of the virus and unlawfully restricts various rights that are enshrined and protected by our constitution.
“These include the right to freedom of trade, the right to human dignity, privacy, and the right to bodily and psychological integrity.
“Challenging the constitutionality of the ban, which removes the public’s right as adults to responsibly consume a beer safely in their own homes, is an integral part of SAB’s action.”
SAB said the damage the ban has had on the economy and the “impact on the alcohol value chain” is “disproportional and unlawful”. –