CAPE TOWN - Lockdown laws prohibits the sale and transportation of alcohol which has directly affected South African Breweries (SAB) with their only solution being to dump stored beer.
SAB head of communications , Refilwe Masemola, said that their local storage facilities were close to capacity with bottled stock.
This means the company needs to transport bottled alcohol currently stored on-site to other storage facilities to free up space for the newly fermented beer that has, after several weeks, approached final fermentation.
Masemola said if the company’s request is not granted by the government they cannot bottle the newly finished batches of beer meaning around 130 million litres of beer will need to be dumped.
Images have recently surfaced of one of SAB’s breweries in Pretoria beginning the dumping process which suggests the permission has not been granted by the government.
Beer drinkers look away now. SAB has begun dumping beer. 25 thousand litres went down the drain in PTA today. Unable to sell or move current stock, SAB could dump over 130 million litres. pic.twitter.com/BicgC29aFJ
— Vumani Mkhize (@VumaniMkhize) May 8, 2020
SAB says with the destruction of the beer and a halt to all production processes this may lead to the loss of around 2000 jobs.
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