Vinpro seeks court interdict to lift ban on wine sales in Western Cape

Wine producers’ representative, Vinpro, has launched an urgent court interdict application to lift a blanket ban on wine sales in the Western Cape.

Vinpro earlier this year approached the Western Cape High Court seeking urgent relief during the previous liquor ban back in December 2020.

This was subsequently postponed when the restrictions were lifted, and the matter was set to be heard in the Western Cape High Court on 23-27 August 2021 before a full bench of judges.

However, it has now filed an interim interdict, due to a full ban being reinstated before the court date.

The body announced the move on Tuesday, as it seeks relief for the wine industry following the ban on alcohol sales by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the weekend.

“The latest ban of two weeks that has now been imposed follows on 19 weeks of revenue loss over the past 15 months, which has had a devastating effect on the wine and tourism sector that employs more than 269,000 people,” said Rico Basson, Vinpro managing director.

“A large number of our wine producers and wineries are small – more than 80% of the 529 wineries are small and medium enterprises and are reliant on direct sales to customers.”

Basson said the ban, without financial support from the government, only subjected their businesses and employees to an extremely bleak future.

He also lambasted the government of turning a blind eye to the industry and its partners when taking decisions that affected the industry.

“Vinpro and its industry partners made submissions to the National Coronavirus Command Council [NCCC] over the past weekend, which entailed specific interventions that would ensure a balanced approach to curb the spread of Covid-19, while also keeping the economy afloat,” Bassson explained.

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“Unfortunately representations in respect of this risk-adjusted approach were not taken into account and a blanket ban was yet again announced.”

He said the urgent interim relief which they sought would afford the premier of the Western Cape (Alan Winde) the power to adopt deviations to the national ban to enable the off- and on-consumption sale of liquor in the province.

“We need to make and implement decisions that balance preserving both lives and livelihoods. Decisions should be made at a provincial level, based on scientific evidence and according to the infection rate and hospital admissions across these provinces.”

“Government’s failure to both adequately prepare the health facilities for possible dangerous additional waves and to administer an adequate and efficient vaccination rollout cannot hold our wine and tourism industry at ransom any longer,” Basson said.