Restaurant Association writes to Ramaphosa, pleads over booze sales

The plea from the industry, through its legal team, follows the latest ban on the sale of alcohol by the government as it battles the rapid spread of Covid-19. 

RASA CEO Wendy Alberts says the president, along with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), should allow restaurants to sell alcohol under strict guidelines.

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The guidelines include: 

• The NCCC allows the sale of and distribution of alcohol countrywide for all restaurants with a valid liquor license.

• In areas identified as hotspots for alcohol related trauma, a higher level of restriction be imposed and the ban reinstated.

• Restaurants must ensure that any alcohol purchase and consumption must be accompanied by the purchase of a main meal. This would effectively prevent the restaurant turning into a bar.

• A purchase limit of two drinks per meal and

• While the lockdown is in effect, the legal drinking-driving limit will be reduced to zero. 

The association has also proposed that the statistics connected to alcohol-related trauma be freely made available to the industry. 

The proposal by the restaurant industry comes a day before a planned protest on Wednesday over the liquor ban.

Restaurants across the country are set to show their unhappiness at the liquor ban by moving empty tables and chairs into the streets in front of the establishments.