Agricultural association Vinpro has launched an urgent interim interdict application to lift the ban on the sale of wine in the Western Cape in a bid to seek interim relief for wine businesses.

“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,” says Vinpro MD Rico Basson.

“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.

“Although wine exports may continue, the industry exports less than 50% of annual production, with the other half sold on home soil,” he laments, stressing that, with no financial support from government for these businesses, their prospects, and that of employees, “are extremely bleak”.

The industry body states that the wine industry has, during the past year, worked tirelessly to be part of the solution “when our country found itself in the grip of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. This included collaborating with government and proactively implementing preventive measures from farm to retail to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of the people working throughout our value-chain and the broader community.”

Vinpro and its industry partners made submissions to the National Coronavirus Command Council 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.

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

Vinpro initially approached the High Court on January 27 to seek urgent relief during the previous ban. This was subsequently postponed when the restrictions were lifted and the matter was set to be heard in the Western Cape High Court between August 23 and 27, before a full bench of judges.

Vinpro, however, reserved the right to launch an interim interdict in case of a full ban being reinstated before the court date. 

“Vinpro is not saying restrictions are not justified when hospitals and particularly trauma units are under pressure. However, we believe that not only has the wrong level of government been dealing with the retail sale of liquor during the national state of disaster, but government has repeatedly implemented nationwide bans which are overbroad, unnecessary, unjustified and, indeed, counterproductive,” the association argues.

It suggests that a more flexible, nimble approach is needed, based on credible empirical data, where the provincial executive should be empowered to deal with the retail sale of liquor for the rest of the pandemic, as provincial authorities are normally responsible for regulating the sale of liquor and in charge of healthcare and provincial hospitals.

“They are, therefore, better equipped to manage the delicate balance between lives and livelihoods.”

Although the liquor ban is intended to ensure that hospitals have the capacity to treat those who become ill, the pandemic affects provinces differently at any given point in time and capacity requirements in hospitals will therefore differ across the country, Vinpro states.

Despite this, it laments that the government has “never differentiated between provinces” when it comes to implementing or lifting of the liquor ban, and that instead, “a nationwide ban has been imposed and then again lifted, without regard for the circumstances in the respective provinces”.

Urgent interim relief will now be sought which will afford the Premier of the Western Cape the power to adopt deviations to the national ban to enable off- and on-consumption sale of liquor in the province.

Similar relief will be sought in respect of other provinces.

The preliminary date for this hearing is scheduled for July 2.