Booze might be back, but SAB continues legal battle against government

South African Breweries (SAB) is pressing ahead with its court challenge to government’s alcohol ban, even though it has been lifted.

This, its lawyers say, is “in the interests of legal certainty and ... to ensure that its continued business operations are not interrupted unnecessarily by further unlawful and unconstitutional prohibitions”.

In answer, government has filed more than 1,000 pages of papers in the Western Cape High Court, including detailed research about the “clear and obvious correlation” between alcohol sales and the demand on trauma and emergency units.

The government argues that the recent booze ban, which President Cyril Ramaphosas lifted this week, did not breach any rights in the Bill of Rights. Even if a right had been limited, this was justifiable under the constitution, said cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in a 255-page affidavit.

She said the motivation for the December-January booze ban was to ensure the health system did not become overwhelmed in the face of the exponential rise in Covid-19 infections that SA saw in December and that it was only meant to last for as long as was necessary.

The ban was never about the impact of alcohol on society generally, she said.

“The rate of new infections has decreased and hospitals now have added capacity. The result of this is that the temporary suspension is no longer necessary, hence the adoption of the February regulations,” said Dlamini-Zuma.

She said while government was “acutely aware” of the economic impact of the restrictions on SAB’s business and on the restaurant industry, there was a “fundamental point” to emphasise: “South Africa (and any industry operating in SA) cannot recover economically in the midst of a raging pandemic. Low transmission and, at some point, no transmission, is indispensable to economic recovery.”

Dlamini-Zuma said government’s experience during the first wave of Covid-19 infections had established a clear correlation between SA’s high levels of alcohol consumption and the capacity of its hospitals to cope with the demands of the pandemic.

Alcohol meant more trauma patients, which led to overcrowding and increased transmission risk. It placed a strain on the availability of beds, oxygen, ventilators and theatre time.

And, said Dlamini-Zuma, it placed a burden on health-care staff, “especially given that, often, a single trauma patient needs the time and attention of a number of medical professionals across various specialisations”.

Referring to data collected from emergency care centres across the Western Cape, Dlamini-Zuma said there was a “clear and definitive correlation between alcohol availability ... and the number of trauma/emergency cases”.

The effect of the ban was a significant, not negligible, as SAB had argued, reduction.

With pages of graphs and charts, Dlamini-Zuma’s affidavit details some of the findings of the research. These include that during the second booze ban, from July 12 to August 18 last year, the average (median) daily trauma cases dropped by 33% and, at the weekend, by 40% to 50%.

Three weeks into the lifting of this second ban, the number of daily trauma cases increased by 43%, interpersonal violence by 55% and car accident patients by 68%. This despite an easing of the curfew.

The picture in the Western Cape was replicated in provinces across the country. The court papers include affidavits from people in charge of big hospitals in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Free State.   

Her affidavit includes data from hospitals across the country that show a marked drop in trauma cases after the most recent December ban.

Dlamini-Zuma describes in detail how, after SA moved to level one, the government continued to monitor the Eastern Cape and sought to put in place measures to contain hotspots, even as the festive season approached. This was with the intention always to balance “lives with livelihoods”.

But the situation continued to deteriorate.

The second wave also saw healthcare workers becoming infected in high numbers, increasing the strain.

“By December 21 and 22 2020, the regular briefings from the various provinces conveyed swiftly escalating numbers of Covid-19 infections and an attendant strain on the health system which, if not effectively managed, could result in an overall collapse ... and devastating loss of lives.”

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