Liquor industry appeals to govt not to impose ‘sudden restrictions’
The South African Liquor Brandowners Association (SALBA) urged government to avoid imposing any sudden restrictions on the sale of booze amid the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant.
SALBA CEO Kurt Moore believes this would result in financial shocks for businesses and their employees.
“Despite all the knee-jerk global response to the announcement of the new variant in SA, the government of SA has some control over what happens to the domestic market. The alcohol, tourism and hospitality industries still desperately need a successful December season to recover and survive through to the off-season period."
The comments by SALBA come after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday that the country would remain on lockdown level 1 for now.
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This is despite the country seeing rising infections because of the Omicron variant first sequenced in southern Africa.
The discovery of the new Covid-19 variant sent shockwaves across the world with countries banning flights from South Africa with immediate effect.
Countries like the United States, Canada and Egypt have placed South Africa on their travel red list.
“We appeal to our government going forward not to apply restriction shock and cause further harm to the domestic economy by imposing unsound economic restrictions in the coming weeks”, Moore says.
