*This story has been updated
Johannesburg – The Gauteng Liquor Board (GLB) on Wednesday said it would no longer issue any special dispensation liquor licenses following public outrage about its decision to extend trading times for licensed in-house liquor traders for the coming weekend when the ANC celebrates its 105 birthday.
This comes after the GLB on Tuesday announced “special dispensation liquor licences”, or a weekend-pass, for the January 6-8 weekend of the annual birthday celebration of the ruling party.
In a statement, the GLB said it had been inundated with applications for extensions of liquor trading times for this upcoming weekend.
The GLB, which is part of the Gauteng Department of Economic Development, said it had initially decided to apply its discretion upon consideration in favour of relaxing liquor trading times to promote local tourism and the hospitality industry.
But public outrage was immense and stakeholders who voiced displeasure included the ANC Women’s League, which warned that it would not allow the party’s “January 8” historic event to be turned into a drinking spree.
Having considered feedback from the public and other key stakeholders, and after consultation with Gauteng MEC for Economic Development Lebogang Maile, the GLB announced that liquor trading times would no longer be extended for this coming weekend.
GLB chairman Fhedzisani Pandelani said all liquor traders in Gauteng would therefore be expected to operate according to their normal trading times and law enforcement agencies would be expected to enforce the law accordingly.
“We have taken an approach to listen to the feedback of our key stakeholders and have decided that it is in the best interest of everyone that we revoke our decision to issue special dispensation liquor licenses for this coming weekend,” Pandelani said.
Pandelani added that although the GLB believed that sufficient and cogent reasons existed for the relaxation of the liquor trading timelines to be granted to deserving traders during the designated days, the liquor authority was concerned about sending a wrong message that the board was encouraging alcohol abuse.
“As the GLB we subscribe to the ethos of responsible alcohol trading and we fully support initiatives aimed at curbing alcohol abuse. We have already implemented stricter regulations for those applying for liquor licenses in Gauteng,” Pandelani said.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that our decisions do not and are not seen as promoting or increasing alcohol abuse, hence we have swiftly moved to reverse such perceptions by reversing our decision.”
In a statement, Maile commended the GLB for its responsiveness to public reaction and stakeholder inputs.
“Ours is a people centred government. Because we are a caring government, we always take inputs of the public at large seriously and respond accordingly. Even if we believed in the correctness of our decisions, we have a moral obligation to listen carefully to the reaction of the public that we serve and align our decisions accordingly,” Maile said.
“Even though the GLB was acting within the ambit of the law, and the decision had the potential for economic spinoffs, as a province we are fully behind the campaign against alcohol abuse hence we are implementing new stricter regulations to curb alcohol abuse.”