Pretoria - Six illegal Western Cape liquor outlets have been closed down and fined following an inspection blitz.
The blitz, which started on Thursday and ended on Sunday, saw the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), South African Police Service, Western Cape Liquor Authority, Department of Home Affairs and the City of Cape Town working together.
“It saw six illegal liquor outlets closed down and fines to the value of R23 000 being given to non-compliant license holders.
“More than 60 outlets ranging from taverns, clubs, restaurants and distributors were raided in Delft, Kraaifontein, Kleinvlei, Mitchells Plain, Lentegeur, Nyanga and Phillip in the Western Cape area,” said the dti on Monday.
According to the Director of Legal Support and Prosecutions at the dti’s National Liquor Authority (NLA), Advocate Sandile Nkosi, the purpose of the inspection blitz was to enforce compliance with the Liquor Act within the liquor industry in and around Cape Town, to visit problematic premises and to ensure adherence to bi-laws and liquor regulations.
Advocate Nkosi said that most outlets that were given non-compliance notices as well as those which were fined and closed down failed to adhere to the conditions of their licenses.
The offences ranged from failure to produce licenses on the trading premises, failure to produce manager’s certificate if trading as juristic person, renewal of licenses, trading with a deceased’s license, trading beyond stipulated hours and selling liquor to minors on the premises, among others.
He added that most of the offenders claimed not to understand the conditions of their licences and the act thereof.
“Non-compliance by traders is alarming and we will not tolerate that in our communities as it affects everyone in the communities,” added Advocate Nkosi.
He also stressed the fact that liquor abuse regulation is everyone’s business and South Africans at large need to work together to combat and ensure that there is compliance.
“South Africa is faced with an increase in liquor abuse by the young people and government, civil society and liquor industry must work together to fight this,” emphasised Nkosi.
The Head of Communication in the Western Cape Liquor Authority, Phillip Prinsloo, viewed the raids as a success as there was an integrated operation with different agencies monitoring and enforcing compliance with their respective legislation.
“We currently have a programme to educate liquor licence holders in the province about compliance and there is a festive season enforcement programme that we will be rolling out to encourage compliance across the province,” said Prinsloo. - SAnews.gov.za
