South Africa: BASA concerns over alcohol sale ban, says 415,000 livelihoods depend on it

After implementing a ban on liquor sales by the government amid other efforts to tackle COVID-19 infection in South Africa, the Beer Association of South Africa (BASA) said that they are against the order of ban, according to a report by Chinaorg.

While addressing the rising cases in the country, Patricia Pillay, the CEO of BASA reportedly said, "the previous two alcohol bans had a devastating impact on the beer industry, with 7,400 job losses, 14.2 billion rand (about 967 million U.S. dollars) in lost sales revenue and 30 percent of breweries being forced to shut their doors".

Pillay however, agreed with the urgent interventions in order to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infections, but she said expressed that she doesn't agree to the blanket alcohol ban announced earlier on Monday, by Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa. After crossing one million COVID-19 cases the country implemented measures to handle the situation.

Adding further, Pillay said that the ban would highly impact the livelihoods of 415,000 families. "We are concerned that another ban will further entrench the web of illicit alcohol trade as consumers look for ways around the ban," Pillay said.

Reportedly, a quarter of alcohol sold in the country before COVID-19 was sold illicitly, as estimated by the World Health Organistaion.