Pick n Pay chair Gareth Ackerman has criticised the government for its ban on liquor and cigarettes saying that there is little evidence that it is listening to or consulting business on lockdown decisions.
The ban was implemented at end-March among measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Liquor sales were allowed in June, but then stopped again three weeks ago, sparking a mounting backlash against the second liquor ban. On Tuesday, the Treasury gave the liquor industry permission to delay paying R5bn owed in taxes.
Speaking at Pick n Pay’s annual general meeting, Ackerman said the liquor and tobacco ban had created “cynicism and division” in the country. Explanations given for the bans were “confusing and contradictory”.
He said that as liquor and cigarettes were readily available on the black market, “the policy achieves no end other than to fuel illegal activity which ... contributes not a single cent to the beleaguered tax service, which desperately needs the revenue for the state to meet its socioeconomic obligations”.
The ban has caused companies in the liquor industry to cancel investments. SAB, a division of AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, said on Monday it was withdrawing at least R2.5bn of a planned R5bn in investment spend, having lost 30% of revenue due to the ban on liquor sales in April and May and again three weeks ago.
Heineken stopped plans to open a brewery on KwaZulu-Natal's South Coast while Consol suspended construction of a new R1.5bn glass manufacturing plant in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.
Ackerman implored the government to review its ban on liquor and cigarettes.
The country lost R82bn in tax revenue in the first three months of lockdown, SA Revenue Service commissioner Edward Kieswetter told Bloomberg on Friday.
Ackerman praised President Cyril Ramaphosa for his initial leadership in dealing with Covid-19, but urged the government to use facts when making decisions.
“I believe that most of us ask no more than that its decisions are taken for the right reasons, are justified by the facts, and that these facts are explained to us when decisions seem difficult to understand.”
Ackerman urged the government to relinquish the extreme control it has in lockdown so the economy could be revived.
“The government would have to recognise its limitations and withdraw from controls it has put in place, play to its strengths and allow citizens and the private sector to play to theirs.”
However, “we have to learn to live with the virus while we grow the economy, and for this to happen, the government will have to rely more on persuasion and co-operation and less on control,” he said.
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