Seven illegal liquor outlets, as well as fines of R10 600, were issued to non-compliant liquor traders in a joint inspection blitz in Cape Town at the weekend.
The joint inspection was carried out between the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), South African Police Service (SAPS), Western Cape Liquor Board and Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
The blitz led to 1873.775 litres of alcohol being confiscated, while seven illegal liquor outlets were closed down. In addition, fines to the value of R10 600 were issued to non-compliant liquor traders.
More than 42 outlets ranging from taverns, shebeens, restaurants, distributors and manufacturers were visited in the Cape Town CBD, Khayelitsha, Phillippi East, Gugulethu, Nyanga and surrounding areas.
Prea Ramdhuny, Chief Director of the National Liquor Authority (NLA) at the dti, said the operation was meant to enforce compliance with the Liquor Act, 2003 (Act 59 of 2003) and to also to address the increasing number of unlicensed traders, non-adherence to the licence conditions, trading hours and enforce compliance to liquor traders and distributors.
“The raids were conducted in terms of Section 26 of the Liquor Act of 2003 which empowers an NLA inspector to conduct inspections and to issue compliance notices, to registrants that fail to adhere to their registration conditions and to produce relevant documents as prescribed by law,” said Ramdhuny on Monday.
Ramdhuny said that the unannounced raids are key in ensuring distributors are selling liquor to licensed persons.
She said the department is still facing the challenge in regulating liquor in that registrants continue to trade after the license has been cancelled or do not comply with their registration conditions.
“In order to address this challenge, we will have to review license conditions and registrants may stand to lose their licenses as government will not tolerate non adherence to the law,” she said.
Colonel Sello Motau of the SAPS National Liquor Control office said after police assessment of crime trends in the Western Cape, criminal conduct in the areas of the places raided were found to have high levels of drug and alcohol abuse.
“It is also found that the cited areas have a large number of illegal and unlicensed liquor traders which are supplying liquor to young people and visibly pregnant women which is a contravention of the norms and standards set out in the National Liquor Act.”
“Further, these areas are known for gangsterism and abuse of drugs by young people thus there was a need for awareness and education about the effects of alcohol,” said Colonel Motau. – SAnews.gov.za
