The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA (SAAPA SA) supports President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to extend the ban on alcohol.
Director Maurice Smithers explains SAAPA SA has consistently called for effective measures to reduce the country’s levels of alcohol-related harm, but has never suggested that access to alcohol be completely banned.
“Nevertheless, we fully support the announcement on 11 January 2021 by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the current suspension of the transportation and sale of alcohol under extended Level 3 of the State of Disaster response to the COVID-19 pandemic will continue until 15 February 2021.
We believe that the South African government and the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) would not have taken this decision lightly and that they considered all relevant factors relating to the saving of both lives and livelihoods before doing so. We call on all South Africans to support and honour this decision and not to do anything to subvert it.
We also call on South African Breweries (SAB) to withdraw their legal challenge to government’s decision on 28 December 2020 to temporarily suspend the transportation and sale of alcohol.”
In his speech to the nation on 11 January 2021, President Ramaphosa called for unity of all South Africans in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus.
“We call on SAB to honour that call and, instead of dividing the country through its ill-advised court action, to devote its efforts and resources to getting government support for the many small enterprises in the alcohol sector who are suffering economic hardship as a result of the State of Disaster.
We also call on the company and its international partner, AB InBev, to stop paying celebrities to support their campaign against government’s decisions and instead to use their vast resources to support those same enterprises until the pandemic is over.
The priority right now is to save lives, not profits; to support government’s efforts, not undermine them.”