Wine court case on ice after unbanning of liquor sales

After government lifted the ban on alcohol sales, the Southern African Agri Initiative’s (Saai) court application will not proceed as planned.

The AfriForum-aligned Saai and their co-applicants, which included wine farms and other wine industry bodies, asked the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to declare unlawful, invalid and unconstitutional the regulations prohibiting the sale and transport of wine.

The nub of their case was that government should have considered the wine industry when it decided to reinstate the prohibition on alcohol sales and transportation.

Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma responded that there was no evidence that wine was different to other types of alcohol and to treat it as such would not serve the purpose of why the ban was imposed in the first place.

Saai hit back, saying that Dlamini-Zuma “has merely assumed that all alcohol is equal”.

Matter

This matter was set down to be heard by a full bench on 24 August.

Then, on Saturday evening, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country would enter lockdown Level 2 on Tuesday, which meant that alcohol could be sold and consumed on-premises under certain limitations. On Monday, Dlamini-Zuma announced the new regulations.

In a statement published on its website on Tuesday, Saai said before the new regulations, Dlamini-Zuma’s legal team, on Sunday, asked them to withdraw the case.

“Saai refused to have the case struck from the roll in view of the minister’s previous promulgation of regulations in contrast with the president’s speeches. To Saai it was of cardinal importance to have the wording of the Level 2 regulations studied by its legal team before making any decision,” it said in a statement.

Saai said in “light of the lifting of the draconian ban on wine sales” it intended postponing the application against Dlamini-Zuma indefinitely.

A court order was expected by the end of the week.

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