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BL Premium reports that Vinpro has filed an urgent interdict to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol in the Western Cape and has asked the court to allow for the provincial government to make its own rules on liquor sales.
The expected court date is on Friday. The body, which represents grape growers and alcohol producer,s says many of the wine farms are medium-sized businesses that are struggling to survive following 19 weeks of alcohol bans since March 2020. The ban has been enforced to reduce the number of trauma patients in hospitals struggling to cope during the Covid-19 third wave. The case argues that the national government should not be making decisions on alcohol sales during the state of disaster, but the authority should rest with the provincial Western Cape government as it manages the issuing of liquor sale licences, and hospitals and health provision. Vinpro argues that provincial authorities are better equipped to manage the delicate balance between lives and livelihoods. Vinpro MD Rico Basson pointed out that wine farms, and tourism and hospitality businesses were not receiving financial support from the government, meaning “their prospects, and that of employees, are extremely bleak”. Vinpro also says the tourism and alcohol industries should not pay the price for the government’s slow vaccine rollout. Vinpro has a similar ongoing court case, which was postponed in March and set down for five days in August in the Cape Town high court. When the case was postponed, Vinpro said it would approach the courts for an urgent interdict if another liquor ban was enacted.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
- Read too, Vinpro seeks to have alcohol sales ban lifted for the Western Cape, at Engineering News
- And also, Liquor and restaurant industries decry tightened level 4 lockdown restrictions, at Business Report
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page