Liquor traders anticipate relaxed lockdown restrictions

Liquor traders wait with bated breath for the anticipated relaxing of lockdown restrictions ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s expected address tonight.

With official data confirming South Africa’s infection rate for Covid-19 had slowed along with deaths, industries affected by lockdown restrictions were expecting good news for business, including liquor licence holders.

CEO of the Restaurants Association of South Africa (RASA) said the the relaxing of some hard hitting retrictions on their members with liquor licences was long overdue with hundreds of businesses closed down and the rest hanging by a thread.

Siegfried Kusel of franchiser Overland Liquors said the company’s 360 franchisees were hoping to start recouping some of the tremendous losses they made over the course of the lockdown, especially after the first and second banning of liquor sales in June and July.

“We had a lot of issues to content with, including uncertainty of when the ban would be lifted,” said Kusel, adding the company was ready to go straight back to business within days of an announcement that the ban was lifted.

“We have our franchise division of about 360 stores and we also have two distribution centres that we supply the stores with so it’s a matter of going back to work immediately and start distributing to our stores, but we don’t have stock we have to procure first and there might be a lag of a few days.”

But other stakeholders were not as enthusiastic about a possible downgrading to lockdown level 1 or 2, citing a lack of definitive evidence South Africa was on its way out of the woods with the pandemic.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa NUMSA penned an urgent open letter, saying it had found no credible scientific explanation on why government statistics showed a “sudden reduction” in the rate of deaths and infections. It echoes the South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC) suggestion that official numbers on the rate of Covid-19 may be significantly off-base with reality.

At the time Numsa penned the letter, South Africa had over 570,000 confirmed cases of infections and 11,000 deaths as a result of the disease.

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) recently published a report that from May 6 to July 28, more than 28,329 excess deaths had been recorded in South Africa compared to 7,257 government confirmed Covid-19 deaths.

Meanwhile, scientists from the University of Free State warned against ‘complacency’ ahead of anticipated downgrading of the lockdown level. Speaking at a webinar this week, experts warned of the potential of a second wave of infections. Prof Salim Abdool Karim, Chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, said despite gains made in containing the spread of the virus, the next few weeks may see numbers begin to climb again.

“What we are seeing is a promising trend, and it looks like we are on the decline. A question that I am often asked is – is the worst over? The answer is not clear cut. We are concerned about the risk of a second surge. If anything – what really concerns me at this stage is a second surge, as I think about how the pandemic may play out over the next few weeks,” said Karim.

He made examples of other countries, such as the US, Spain, New Zeeland, Vietnam, and South Korea, which are now facing a second surge.

“We need to be very careful; this is not the time for complacency. We need to maintain all our efforts. If we look at one of the key drivers, it is the need for our economy to restart. We need to get people back to work.”

Director of the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance Maurice Smithers said the body had long been calling for the lifting of the ban on alcohol sales, but warned keeping the restrictions tight was necessary to maintain control over movement.

The harmful effects of liquor trade to the health system could have been avoided, he added, had government already passed the proposed liquor amendment Bill which amends the Liquor Products Act on production and sale of liquor. The bill would see tighter restrictions including a raising of the legal drinking age and regulations and prevent liquor from being sold 500 meters or less from schools, places of worship, recreational facilities, rehabilitation or treatment centres, residential areas, public institutions, and other similar amenities.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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