The SCA has ruled that provisions of a KZN Liquor Act which stated that stores could not be situated next to schools or places of worship did not apply to pre-existing licence holders, says a report in The Mercury. The court was dealing with an appeal brought by Shoprite Checkers against a judgment by KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) Judge Mahendra Chetty last year, in which he had found that businesses with old licences – granted under the 1989 Act – and new licences had to comply with the provisions.

The KZN Liquor Licensing Act of 2010, which came into full implementation in 2014, replaced the 1989 Liquor Act. In the SCA judgment, Judge Xola Petse – with four judges concurring – noted that the policy considerations that had led to the provisions were ‘laudable’. ‘It is necessary to emphasise that this appeal is not about government’s powers to formulate policy nor to pass legislation. It is all about interpretation of the words used in the KwaZulu-Natal Liquor Act.’ Petse said on the reading of the Act, the provisions which banned businesses from operating within 80m of schools and religious institutions did not apply to pre-existing licence holders applying for conversions of their licences.

However, the court found that pre-existing licence holders were still subject to statutory obligations imposed under the old Act, which prohibited the granting of a licence if the premises were in the vicinity of a place of worship or school or in a residential area, unless the business would be carried on in a manner that would not disturb the proceedings in that place of worship or school, or prejudice the residents of that area.

Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

Shoprite v MEC for Economic Development and Environmental Affairs, KZN