LOCKDOWN FEARS: Liquor traders urge Ramaphosa to follow science

The National Liquor Traders (NLC) organisation has called on the government to ensure that it is guided by science and that it has a plan to deal with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 without subjecting the country to “unnecessary lockdowns”

“As the NCCC and Cabinet meets to discuss the implication of the fourth wave and the effects of the Omicron variant on our country, we further call on the government to show leadership and assure the people of this country that government has a plan of dealing with this variant and managing the fourth wave without subjecting our people to unnecessary lockdowns,” NLC convenor Lucky Ntimane said.

“The fact that we have gone through three waves of Covid-19 already as a country should really call for the learnings we took to be put into practice to manage the current fourth wave,” he said.

“The President should already have a script to deal with this outside of the usual knee jerk reaction to ban alcohol, which has no basis in science and even basic common sense,” Ntimane said.

“Our call for science to guide the President’s approach certainly leaves no room for a political science approach, strictly medical science is what should be considered and balancing this with an important matter of livelihoods,” he said.

He said that the NLT was “seriously concerned” about the possibility of another hard Covid19 lockdown and trade restrictions that could potentially be announced soon due to the Covid19 new Omicron variant. 

“These restrictions which may include the ban on alcohol sales will have devastating effects on the economy but more directly on the jobs. At the heart of it, taverns, who account for 250,000 jobs in the township space, will be the hardest hit, in an environment where we are still trying to recover from the previous alcohol bans,” he said.

Liquor industry urges government not to impose lockdown bans

“Alcohol bans, or unjust trade restrictions will really be a slap in the face of our people who are trying so hard to earn a living in a country and economy where the economic fortunes are stacked against them,” Ntimane said.

:We will certainly view a move to ban or restrict alcohol as the ultimate economic sabotage against liquor traders on the side of the President and we will hold him solely accountable for unleashing a poverty pandemic against our people, he added.

Ntimane said that industry figures showed that R42.2bn was lost in retail sales and the loss to GDP was R60.7bn due to lockdown restrictions. Total excise income tax lost was R10.2bn, with just over 233,000 jobs put at risk, due to previous bans. 

“If this were to be repeated, the impact will not be only unfortunate but disastrous. Thirty percent  of local micro breweries were forced to shut their doors permanently and 165,000 people lost their jobs in January this year,” Ntimane said.

He said NLT called on the President and his leaders to “sensitively consider these issues and refrain from any ban on the sale of alcohol” in favour of alternatives to lockdown restrictions that will not destabilise the fragile economy. 

“We further call on President Ramaphosa to engage with the alcohol industry to explore sustainable means of fighting Covid-19 without subjecting those dependent on the alcohol industry to poverty,” he said.

“We affirm our belief that vaccination is key to managing the Covid-19 and we will endeavour to support all government efforts to getting our people vaccinated,” Ntimane said.