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I hope your liquor cabinet, or wine rack, is fairly well stocked, because there are suggestions that the current ban on the sale of alcohol could last for eight weeks in total.

Given that President Ramaphosa announced the ban last Sunday, that would mean a further seven or so weeks from now.

Many will already be making sneaky side deals and trades, and the WhatsApp messages regarding clandestine wine deliveries have started up again, so props to South Africans for their ingenuity.

Nothing like being made to feel like a bootlegging criminal to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, hey?

Sadly, that trade will do little to help the food and beverage industry, which is essentially a “sector in complete and utter collapse”.

The eight-week alcohol sales ban figure comes from a recently released SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) report, which the body believes could have helped shape the National Coronavirus Command Council’s (NCCC) decision.

Over to the Citizen:

It predicts that the ban could last for at least eight weeks. It presented its report to the government in early July.

“It should be noted that there are multiple pressures on the government to relax current restrictions on alcohol and … it is clear that these should not be entertained.

“It is imperative to maintain absolute transparency and inform the public of [the] rationale behind its decision to reimpose a ban or tighter restrictions,” the report says.

The report makes it clear that the SAMRC is in favour of “early implementation of a ban or restriction” when it comes to the sale of booze.

That SAMRC report outlines how the ban could greatly reduce pressure on our already overburdened hospital system, especially with regards to trauma cases, which take up valuable resources that would otherwise be used to treat COVID-19 patients.

The report also suggested alternatives to an outright ban, such as further limiting availability, harsher policing around drunk driving, drinking in public, and other infractions, and amendments to advertising and packaging related to liquor.

See here for more on that.

As with so many of the decisions taken by Ramaphosa and the NCCC, we may never know the full picture of which information was used to make the final call on the ban.

Requests directed at Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to outline the information relied upon when declaring a ban on the sale of tobacco, for example, have consistently been met with the same response:

“The information requested by the Honourable Member is not readily available in the department. The information will be submitted to the Honourable Member as soon as it is available. Thank you.”

With liquor, the results of a ban are more tangible, and can already be seen in trauma wards at certain hospitals, but can we afford to sink an industry that so many South Africans rely upon to feed families?

Saving lives must come first, of course, but what happens further down the line will also have massive ramifications on the health and wellbeing of many.

Either way, there is no certainty that the ban will last eight weeks (could be shorter, could be longer), but you might want to start making plans if rationing won’t see you through.

[source:citizen]