Wine farmers head to court to fight ban
After receiving the record from the government on which it based its decision to ban alcohol sales during lockdown, wine farmers say most material relates to the long-term harm of alcohol and is not related to the pandemic.
This is the latest sequel to several of the country’s wine farmers heading to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, later this month against the ban on the sale of wine.
In a supplementary affidavit now filed by Francois Rossouw, chief executive of SA Agri Initiative, it is said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma only focused on inputs which favoured the ban.
During the current lockdown regulations the minister should focus on the Covid-19 pandemic and how to alleviate its effects, he said.
“It is not the time to push an agenda against alcohol usage,” he said.
The Agri Initiative is one of the parties who along with several wine farmers will ask for an urgent order to lift the ban on the selling and transporting of wine under the Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
The organisation is asking that the regulations imposed by Dlamini Zuma be declared invalid and unconstitutional where it relates to the transportation and selling of wine.
The applicants say the ban infringes on their constitutional right to produce wine and on that of their workers to earn a living.
In his latest affidavit, Rossouw said from reading the record on which the minister based her decision to ban alcohol sales during this time, it appears that she did not even consider differentiating between types of alcohol, its usage and sale.
Read the full story on: IOL.