Despite the partial lifting of the ban on the local sale of liquor, wine industry body, Vinpro, will continue with its urgent court challenge on behalf of its members to avoid any future disruptions to the South African wine industry and its value-chain due to a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations.
“In the absence of herd immunity – which may or may not be reached in South Africa at the end of 2021 – we fear that national government will again resort to a nationwide ban on the local sale of liquor as they have done in the past, when a third of fourth wave of infection hits the country. Therefore, Vinpro will go ahead and challenge the manner in which these bans are imposed,” said Vinpro spokesperson, Wanda Augustyn.
She pointed out that Vinpro – on advice from its legal team – had decided not to proceed with the extremely urgent application for an interim interdict to have the liquor ban lifted in the Western Cape this Friday.
“We were advised that the matter cannot proceed because the court will no longer regard it as extremely urgent (due to the partial lifting of the liquor ban).
“The case, however, is still regarded as urgent and Vinpro, through our legal team, now awaits confirmation of a new expedited date, on which the main court challenge, in respect of the manner in which these liquor bans are imposed in our country, will be heard,” said Augustyn.
Last week, Vinpro MD, Rico Basson, said the total of 19 weeks of stop-go alcohol bans from March last year had resulted in a loss of more than R8bn (€432mn) in direct sales and the possible closure of cellars and producers.
In total, the wine industry supports the livelihoods of 269 000 employees and generates R55bn (€2.9bn) in revenue for the economy.
Basson emphasised that Vinpro supported meaningful measures to flatten the COVID-19 curve, but it did not support the continued outright ban on the sale of wine while alternative interventions were available to mitigate risks.
“Vinpro is not saying a liquor ban may not be justified when hospitals, and particularly trauma units, are under pressure. However, we believe that not only has the wrong level of government been dealing with the retail sale of liquor during the national state of disaster, but government has used and maintained nationwide bans that are overbroad, unnecessary, unjustified and, indeed, counter-productive,” he said.
Highlighting the effect of the latest alcohol ban on the tourism sector recently, Vinpro Wine Tourism Manager, Marisah Nieuwoudt, said government needed to recognise that the wine industry was different to the other alcohol industries and that the sector needed consistency to be able to recover.
