Alcohol traders plead with president to lift sales ban

CALLS are mounting for President Cyril Ramaphosa to relax lockdown regulations and to allow restaurants to extend their operational hours and open alcohol sales in the industry.

The restaurant industry was one of the worst affected since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year. Restrictions on that industry ranged from a total ban on operations and sale of alcohol as well as partial opening and restricted sale of alcohol.

The most recent revised restriction was placed on July 11 when President Ramaphosa allowed these establishments to only allow 50% of the patrons inside their premises but he maintained the ban on the sale of alcohol.

Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation today after consultation with the Ministerial Advisory Committee and his cabinet.

Now, Wendy Alberts – CEO of Restaurants Association of SA – has made a plea to government to properly consult with all affected parties ahead of imposing lockdown restrictions.

“The sale of alcohol is the core business of our industry,” she emphasised. Adding to their troubles, Alberts said the 9pm curfew has also affected their business as they are now forced to close at 19:30 to clean their property and to allow staff to go home before the curfew.

The National Liquor Traders has also called on Ramaphosa to relax the ban on sale of alcohol, arguing that any further ban was likely to lead to the closure of mostly black-owned taverns in the country.

NLT convener Lucky Ntimane said the latest four-week alcohol ban that the taverns and the broader alcohol industry have been subjected to has been the harshest yet, over and above the 20 weeks of non-trading that they we had to endure with the three previous bans combined.

“We have yet to see evidence that the decisions to ban alcohol were based on science or even common sense.

“We anticipate that more than 10 000 taverns will not be able to open their doors when the ban on alcohol is finally lifted owing to depleted savings and this being a hand-to-mouth business enterprise.

“Over 200 000 livelihoods of those that are dependent on the tavern sector have had to endure four weeks without knowing how to support their families. Poverty has become a real pandemic for liquor traders,” Ntimane said.

He said their business was also impacted by the recent unrest and looting that took place in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, saying that development was equally devastating to their traders who have essentially lost their ability to resume trading when the opportunity arises due to loss of stock, and it will take years to recover.

“We call on the president to lift the ban on alcohol and allow us to pick up the pieces as we resume with our lives and earning a livelihood,” Ntimane said.

He said since the bans on alcohol commenced, taverns have not received any financial support or relief in any form from the government.

“President Ramaphosa in his address on the 11th July mentioned that there would be a reprieve for small businesses in terms of licence renewals waiver and we have now verified and confirmed with the National Liquor Authority (NLA), that this support doesn’t extend to liquor traders.

“Yet again the plight of black owned small businesses in this country appears to be ignored.

“As NLT, we call on the Presidency to review the current leadership in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Competition as we cannot have an absent Minister who is unable to support companies at their time of need.

“The minister has failed not only the alcohol industry but the tavern sector with his complete lack of consultation and indifference. It questions his commitment to consulting with the industry, which is responsible for over a million livelihoods. Consultation needs to be more than a tick box exercise by the government,” Ntimane said.

But the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA disagrees with the total lifting of the ban on the sale of alcohol.

Coordinator Aadielah Maker-Diedricks said her organisation was of the view that a total lifting of the ban would lead to further increases of infections and death.

Maker-Diedricks said Ramaphosa should consider allowing off-site consumption businesses to operate from Monday until Thursday but on-site consumption sites should remain closed .