COVID-19: JOHANNESBURG COMMUNITY HAPPY THAT THEY CAN NOW DRINK BEER

An hour after South Africa’s ban on the sale of alcohol was officially lifted on Tuesday at 9am, Sello Ditabe was pushing a trolley filled with a dozen bottles of gin and mixers out of a vast warehouse in Johannesburg, where aisles were stacked 15 cases high with spirits and beer. “I am very relieved. My brother is getting married next week and we were all very worried,” Ditabe, 31, said.

Across the country enthusiastic customers thronged alcohol stores and shops selling cigarettes, which could also be sold once more.

On the other side of Johannesburg, Sanizo Mabaso, a delivery driver, was also having a busy morning. In one hand, he held a bottle of Moët & Chandon champagne and in the other, two bottles of a potent fruit-flavoured aperitif, a customer’s order. “It’s going to be a long, hard day,” he said. It was not yet mid-morning but he and the other drivers for the local delivery service where he worked already had 300 orders.

Despite one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, South Africa has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with almost 600,000 cases and a death toll believed to be much higher than the official figure of 12,000.

The sale and transport of alcohol and cigarettes was forbidden in late March, although the ban was briefly lifted in June. The ban was justified as necessary to prevent gatherings that would accelerate the spread of the virus, and to protect the overstretched health service, which otherwise would have to deal with high levels of alcohol-related attacks, injuries and illnesses. Ministers also said the practice of sharing cigarettes posed a significant risk.

Under new regulations announced by the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the weekend, alcohol can be sold from Monday to Thursday between 9am and 5am.

Although the bans on alcohol and cigarettes were controversial, figures released by the police minister, Gen Bheki Cele, last week showed a steep drop in most crimes during the lockdown, especially murder and assault, and research in the Western Cape province showed that trauma admissions to hospitals dropped by half. The prohibition of alcohol was a major factor in both.

“If people want to smoke let them smoke … The bans have been a total disaster from a financial point of view. It was totally the wrong decision,” said Gunther Hadsbjerg, 77, as he put three bottles of wine and a case of beer in the boot of his car.

Beer-makers’ associations said more than 10,000 bars had been forced to shut and the craft-brewing industry had been decimated, despite government assistance schemes.

South Africa’s winemakers have also suffered heavy losses, with many jobs threatened. “I told my staff that we would soldier on and not get rid of anyone. We received some government support and our [business partners] in Europe were very good to us but these are very trying times and next year will not be easy,” said Rijk Melck, the owner of Muratie wine estate, near Stellenbosch.

Melck, a former medical doctor, said the alcohol ban “did not make sense”.

“People on social media, have been wrongly interpreting the lifting [of the bans] as an opportunity to go back to their old habits,” he said. “We want to make it clear that the unbanning of alcohol sales is not an excuse for people to go back to drinking and driving. It does not give people the licence to get involved in fights where others will be assaulted, stabbed or shot. It is not an opportunity for them to get drunk, and then beat up women and children.”