OnTap Magazine

Patricia Pillay With this being the first edition of the On Tap magazine in 2022, we are excited to update readers on the beer landscape since the last edition and provide insight into the Beer Association of South Africa (BASA) priorities over the holiday season and the start of 2022. This includes partnering with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial Liquor Board and Pro Beach Soccer League to run a highly successful Festive Beach Sports Campaign in Durban in November and December. The event was extremely well attended and provided an opportunity to promote moderate and responsible drinking, as well as promote the “Don’t Drink and Swim” campaign. You can read more about this wonderful campaign in the pages that follow. With the beer industry worried about another potential alcohol ban being enforced over the festive season, which would serve as the final nail in the coffin for many businesses who barely survived the previous four bans, BASA also launched a review application in the Gauteng High Court for the decision to impose the previous bans to be declared irrational and invalid in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) and/or the principle of legality. Oneof themain aims of this court action is to forcegovernment to provide the evidence on which it based its decision to enforce the previous bans. Our application argues that it failed take into account the devastating impact of the bans on the alcohol industry and for this reason, amongst others, these decisions are reviewable and destined to be set aside in terms of PAJA. With the alcohol industry having lost R42.2 billion in retail sales last year, due to the bans, which also resulted in a R60.7 billion loss to the GDP, it is crucial that the courts give direction on whether bans on the sale of alcohol are rational or legal so that we have certainty on this moving forward. We will continue to provide our readers with regular updates on any new developments regarding the court case. We are also delighted to introduce two new members of the BASA leadership team - Jordi Borrut, as the new Managing Director of HEINEKEN South Africa and Richard Rivett-Carnac, who was recently appointed as the new CEO at South African Breweries. Over the past few months, we have also been hard at work supporting our local beer industry to recover after the last alcohol ban was lifted. We have used every opportunity to promote South Africa’s Brew Routes, with the hope of encouraging people to visit our world-class craft breweries across the country. This has included promoting the Brew Routes at the Ultimate Beverage Expo in January, where celebrity Chef Claire Allen provided an educational and tasty beer pairing demonstration. The Brew Routes also made their debut at the Winelands Summer Beer Festival last month. Brew Route adverts were also launched at the Cape Town airport arrivals hall, to encourage tourists arriving in the province to add visits to craft breweries to their itineraries. We are also very proud to share that we recently participated in a Social Cohesion Dialogue and Youth Empowerment Session in the Free State, in partnership with the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. The dialogue aimed to foster social cohesion, promote active citizenry and youth activism, while advocating for responsible behaviour. BASA hopes to continue building its partnerships with government, provincial liquor boards and all other industry stakeholders in order to rebuild the local beer industry while encouraging safe, responsible and moderate drinking in communities. We encourage all On Tap readers to follow BASA’s social media accounts in order to stay up to date with our latest campaigns and activities across South Africa: Facebook: @BeerSouthAfrica Twitter: @BeerSA_org LETTER FROM THE CEO OF THE BEER ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA 6 | Autumn 2022 | ontapmag.co.za