The wine industry says it is now at a "tipping point", with many smaller companies, particularly black-owned businesses, potentially facing closure in the face of the latest alcohol ban.
Several bans on the sale of alcohol since the end of March 2020 have left the liquor industry reeling.
In a survey of wine grape producers, wineries and other wine-related businesses, conducted by wine industry body Vinpro over the past week, more than a fifth of respondents have strong doubts about their survival.
Vinpro said 58% of the 549 respondents indicated that their "businesses would have to make drastic changes over the next year to be able to overcome the current challenges related to Covid-19", with 22% saying they "will in all probability not be able to survive at all. Even more alarming is the fact that 46% of black-owned brands and farms believe their businesses won't be able to survive the next year."
Vinpro CEO Rico Basson said that "many wine businesses are at the edge of a cliff and the livelihoods of thousands of employees are being endangered in the process".
"South Africa is the only country in which liquor sales have been banned with no financial assistance from national government, despite repeated requests from the wine industry.
"Instead, the government chooses to close our industry without reliance on empirical evidence to back their decisions and seems apathetic towards its citizens' plight for survival," said Basson.
The survey also shows that about two-thirds of respondents' revenue is generated from domestic wine sales.
Vinpro launched an urgent interim interdict application last week to lift the ban on the sale of wine in the Western Cape and afford the premier of the Western Cape the power to adopt deviations to enable off- and on-consumption liquor sales in the province. The case has been postponed due to no judges being available to hear the urgent interim interdict sooner.
Vinpro's main application, which argues that the wrong level of the government has been dealing with decisions on the sale of booze, is set down for the August 23-26.
This application argues that the bans by the national government are overbroad, unjustified and counterproductive.
Staff reporter
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