LIVE: ‘Family meeting’ ahead of Easter Weekend, SALBA fears liquor ban return

President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to address the nation this evening at 7.30pm, the office of the presidency has confirmed.

The president will speak on the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic following meetings with the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC), the President’s Coordinating Council and Cabinet.

The address comes hot on the heels of the upcoming Easter weekend, with fears of a higher level of lockdown being implemented as a means to contain the spread of the coronavirus. 

“As South Africa rolls out its national Covid-19 vaccination programme, government and social partners are continuously monitoring infection, treatment and patient recovery rates, as well as compliance with health regulations and other prevention measures,” said acting spokesperson to the president, Tyrone Seale. 

Meanwhile, the SA Liquor Brandowners Association (SALBA) has submitted an urgent request for information in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to cooperative governance minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and the health minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize.

The request for information asks that government provide answers as to why it purportedly intends to again ban liquor sales.

This follows an alleged confirmation at the industry meeting with the officials of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition yesterday (29 March) that the National Coronavirus Command Council was intending on banning all sales of alcohol for 11 days, starting Easter weekend.

SALBA said the NCCC further intends to increase the number of people allowed in a gathering from the current limitation of 100 for indoors and 250 for outdoors for the same period.

SALBA has given government up to Wednesday to furnish this information on which the organisation would base its next course of action.

“We hope government will be transparent and make this information available.

“We would like to understand what the rationale/evidence-based reasoning is behind an 11-day ban of alcohol sales while at the same time increasing the maximum number of people allowed in a gathering,” said SALBA Chairperson Sibani Mngadi.

The presidential address will be streamed live on a variety of platforms, with a live link to the address below.

(Note: The live feed to the address below will only become accessible once the address starts). 

The address will also be streamed live on SABC2, channel 404 as well as eNCA, channel 403 (These channel numbers are for DStv subscribers).