OnTap Magazine

Patricia Pillay The latest surge in Covid-19 infections in South Africa highlights once again that we are far from seeing the back of this pandemic. What will be critical to keeping hospital admissions and deaths low is everyone taking personal responsibility for adopting the necessary precautions against the virus. By everyone remaining vigilant, and playing their part, South Africa can show that it is possible for people to continue going about their daily business despite the Covid-19 pandemic still forming part of our lives. With our county’s official unemployment standing at 35.3%, we cannot afford another round of restrictions imposed by government, which close down the economy, such as the four alcohol bans that were enforced between March 2020 and July 2021. We know that the bans had a devastating impact on the alcohol industry and the country’s economy. R42.2 billion was lost in retail sales and there was a R64.8 billion loss to the GDP (1.3% of the GDP). The first and second ban alone resulted in 165 000 job losses. When it comes to the beer industry, by 11 January 2021, 30% of local breweries were forced to shut their doors permanently. Against the backdrop of this economic devastation, the Beer Association of South Africa is extremely concerned about new regulations relating to the Surveillance and the Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions: Amendment that was published by the Minister of Health on the 15th of March. These proposed regulations focus on interventions to contain the spread of notifiable medical conditions in the future, including Covid-19, and include the sale, dispensing and consumption of alcohol as information that theMinister of Healthmay share with his Cabinet colleagues for purposes of disease control. This means that despite government to date failing to provide sufficient scientific evidence on which they based their decision to enforce the previous four bans, this legislation will ensure future bans remain on the cards even when the country is not in a State of Disaster. These proposed regulations appear to be unconstitutional, as the regulation of the sale of alcohol to consumers is a provincial competence which was only suspended during the State of Disaster. They are also vague and, if enforced, will create a high level of uncertainty and instability for the alcohol industry. BASA has therefore made a submission to the Department of Health requesting that this proposed regulation be scrapped. One of our key arguments for the scrapping of this clause is that there has been no empirical evidence presented to date that the sale, dispensing and consumption of alcohol and the transmission of notifiable medical conditions are linked. The proposed regulations also highlight the importance of BASA’s ongoing review application in the Gauteng High Court against the previous four bans, which we launched in December last year. The aim of our application is to have the previous bans to be declared irrational, invalid and set aside in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) and/or the principle of legality. Despite our high court application, BASA remains committed to working with Government to mitigate the impact of future waves of infections. BASA and its members have implemented a range of interventions to encourage the moderate, responsible and safe consumption of alcohol. However alcohol bans, which destroy legal businesses and jobs are not the answer. It is critical that we save lives without sacrificing livelihoods and therefore we call for cool heads to prevail when responding to the current fifth wave in South Africa and any future surges of infections. In particular, we need to keep driving the importance of getting vaccinated, the regular sanitising of hands, always wearing masks when indoors and avoiding large indoor gatherings. LETTER FROM THE CEO OF THE BEER ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA 8 | Winter 2022 | ontapmag.co.za