SA Breweries (SAB), which has been affected by the looting frenzy in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, has criticised the government’s handling of the crisis.
SAB, which employs 200,000 people and supports more than 1- million livelihoods along the beer value chain, said on Thursday the government’s response had been inadequate.
“We are strongly appealing to government and all social partners to step up, lead us and help us during these turbulent times. The response to date has been inadequate and as citizens we deserve better,” SAB said in a statement.
For its part, the government has doubled the deployment of army personnel to 5,000 this week and plans to ramp up the number to 25,000 to quell the social unrest, which has led to the temporary closure of businesses in the affected provinces.
The social unrest, which was sparked by the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma last week, started in parts of KwaZulu-Natal before spreading to Gauteng. Shopping malls, warehouses and factories were looted, vandalised and destroyed.
The total cost of the damage is not yet clear but the mayor of eThekwini, Mxolisi Kaunda, estimated on Wednesday that it will cost the metro about R16bn.
While Gauteng experienced relative calm by Thursday morning, several buildings in Durban were on fire, implying that the cost of the damage could be higher.
“At SAB, the looting spread through our Pietermaritzburg depot and countless distributors, retailers across the country were left bare in the rampage. This, on top of four total alcohol bans, further threatens the lives and livelihoods of our people and the volatile sustainability of our industry,” the company said.
SAB, which is a unit of global brewing giant AB InBev, is reeling from the latest ban on the sale of alcohol, which is meant to free up space at hospitals for Covid-19 patients. However, its previously announced pledge of R2bn in capital expenditure is still on track.
The cumulative effect of the destruction filters into thousands of township businesses, ranging from liquor stores, taverns, distributors, restaurants, security services, cleaners and logistics companies who have been left devastated by the unrest, SAB said.
Meanwhile, the SA Liquor Brandowners Association (Salba) and National Liquor Traders (NLT) said they had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling on the government to declare a state of emergency to protect people, communities and businesses in areas affected by the continuing unrest.
“The mass looting, threat to lives and livelihoods and destruction of property has reached proportions that require the rapid and effective deployment of SANDF troops to assist business owners,” said Salba CEO Kurt Moore. “Many of these are small and medium enterprises unable to protect their employees, businesses and livelihoods alone.”
He added that the lack of police presence and SA National Defence Force support and visibility resulted in more than 200 members’ stores being deliberately targeted and looted. Millions of rand worth of stock at warehouses and retail premises across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng has been stolen and stores have been damaged.
Lucky Ntimane, convener for the National Liquor Traders Council, said many of the attacks were politically orchestrated as well as co-ordinated by organised crime, which served to grow the illicit alcohol sector. “If the destruction continues unabated, the liquor industry will reach a point of no return and more than 200,000 people will be out of work.”
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