Vinpro, the body representing the wine industry, has filed an urgent interdict to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol in the Western Cape and has asked the court to allow for the provincial government to make its own rules on liquor sales.

The expected court date is Friday, says a Business Day report.

The body representing grape growers and alcohol producers says many of the wine farmers are medium-sized businesses struggling to survive following 19 weeks of alcohol bans since March 2020.

The ban has been enforced to reduce the number of trauma patients in hospitals struggling to cope during the Covid-19 third wave.

Vinpro argues that the national government should not be making decisions on alcohol sales during the State of Disaster, but the authority should rest with the provincial Western Cape Government as they manage the issuing of liquor sale licences, and hospitals and health provision. Vinpro is not arguing against restrictions when hospitals and trauma units are under pressure.

But it says that the nationwide liquor bans are ‘over-broad, unnecessary, unjustified and, indeed, counter-productive’, especially as Covid-19 infection rates often differ among provinces.

Allowing provincial authorities to decide on bans, would mean a more flexible and nimble approach that would take into account how provincial Covid-19 case numbers, hospital capacity and the effect of a ban on the alcohol, restaurant, tourism and agricultural sectors.

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Meanwhile, the Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai) has written to Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma requesting her to allow sales by wine farmers, particularly through e-commerce channels since ‘a minority of South Africans consume wine, of which, a small percentage consumes wine heavily’.

Another Business Day report says Saai, which represents more than 100 wine farmers, argues, through its lawyers, that the consumption of wines sold specifically by wine farmers is limited and consequently any potential impact it might have on hospital capacity is also limited.

‘SA wine consumers do not consume large amounts of wine when compared to other countries and beer remains the beverage mostly consumed. Wine consumption is characterised by safe drinking behaviour, while the consumption of beer/cider and spirits are associated with problematic drinking behaviour,’ Saai’s legal representatives said in the letter.

The DA has also written to Dlamini-Zuma, pointing out that present regulations do not allow for wine to be transported to storage or bottling plants, or allow for the transport of samples to laboratories or certification bodies as required per legislation, and the regulations therefore need to be modified.

The SA Liquor Brand Owners Association (Salba), whose members include Distell and the beer industry body, has written to the ministerial advisory committee (MAC) to ask for the scientific reasoning behind the fourth liquor sales ban. The industry has pointed out that no other country, including India, where the Delta variant was first identified, has enforced liquor bans.

Salba chair Sibani Mngadi said: ‘We would therefore like to understand what international best practice or local scientific data was used for the MAC to conclude that the off-and-on consumption sales ban was the best solution.’

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