'Scrap national disaster, shift Covid-19 matters to the Department of Health,' say liquor traders

As president Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver his state of the nation address on Thursday, the National Liquor Traders have told him they expect him to consider scrapping the national state of disaster.

“As far as the Sona is concerned we expect the removal of the state of disaster, the transfer of the responsibility of dealing with the pandemic to the Department of Health and allowing the parliamentary process to resume to hold the executive to account on how they are dealing with Covid-19,” said NLT spokesperson Lucky Ntimane on Sunday.

The organisation has joined the growing call for the government to lift the national state of disaster.

On Friday health minister Joe Phaahla warned of a possibility of a fifth Covid-19 wave as winter looms. Phaahla also told the nation that after a steady decline in infections, there was a plateau which was likely caused by the opening of schools and movement of people after the festive season.

However, Ntimane said tavern owners have suffered under the national state of disaster and Ramaphosa should consider extending support and relief packages to registered liquor traders.  

“The future of SA lies in entrepreneurship and the support for small, black-owned businesses who support multitudes of jobs is extremely important.”

The organisation is also calling for universal liquor laws instead of provinces having their own liquor acts.

“We would like a 0% increase on excise duty levied on alcohol products for the current fiscal year as well as developing of the country’s alcohol harm reduction strategy to deal with alcohol abuse and its associated harm,” said Ntimane.

 He added that the organisation would like to see the abolition of regulations that prevent government lending agencies assisting liquor traders with funding.

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